


A Royal Engagement

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Engagement, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Strangers to Lovers, kravitz is a prince, now the world thinks they're engaged, taako sneaked into the ball, whoops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25711870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: Taako had just wanted to spend a nice night at the ball. Sure, he wasn'tsupposedto be at the ball, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a nice night there anyway. He wasn't even planning on meeting the prince. He told himself he was going to play it safe, just mill about for a few hours, drink all the fancy drinks and eat the fancy hors d'oeuvre and maybe steal some of the expensive silverware, but that was it.He didn't plan on an announcement going out to the world of his engagement to Prince Kravitz. Especially since they weren't, you know, actually engaged. Or even knew each other. All they could do was go along with the ruse until they thought of some way out of it.Pretending to be engaged probably shouldn't be this much fun.
Relationships: Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 312
Kudos: 574





	1. Playing It Safe

"I’m telling you Lup, there’s no way for this to go wrong,” Taako said, making the final adjustments to his bag. It was one of those Handy Haversacks Lup had got him for Candlenights a few years ago, but with all the modifications he’d done no one would be able to tell. It looked like an innocuous purple bedazzled handbag, which matched the rest of his outfit perfectly.

“You could get caught,” Lup supplied easily. Taako glared at her, tying off the last thread with a decisive tug before snipping off the extra bit and turning the bag back from inside out.

“There is  _ one way _ for this to go wrong, but it’s not gonna happen!” he insisted. Glancing over at the clock, they were going right on schedule so far. He needed to be sure to get there with the biggest part of the crowd for his best chance of actually slipping inside. “Now get out, I need to get changed,” he said, turning and shooing Lup off his bed. She rolled her eyes but got up, heading to the door.

“Lemme know when you’re done, I still need to do your hair!” she said as she left. Taako nodded, and as soon as the door shut behind her he started changing into his outfit.

The bright purple three piece  _ looked _ like it could pass as some high class shit. Taako had spent the past couple of weeks trying to get the fit exactly right, and damn if he didn’t think the final product came out real nice. The whole outfit was maybe a little flashy, but he didn’t think that would be a problem at the ball.

It was a yearly thing, and there were other events at the palace but this was always the biggest. Everyone from the rich and powerful in their own kingdom to foreign leaders and royals would be there. A big show that had a duel purpose of letting everyone there feel important as well as strengthening political alliances and that sort of junk.

Taako wasn’t rich. Him and Lup weren’t important political leaders, they didn’t have any sort of grand connections to get them into the gala. Lup was living off of loans while she finished up with school, and Taako was working part time at their friend’s nursery while he tried to get his own bakery off the ground.

Despite that, he was fucking going to the party this year and nothing was going to stop him.

“Lup! I’m good,” he called, and their apartment wasn’t huge or particularly well sound proofed, so he didn’t have to worry about her not hearing. A few moments later she came back into the room, sitting him down on a stool in front of the mirror to start working on his hair.

“You sure you don’t wanna come with? I’m sure we could whip together something nice for you to wear before we gotta hit the road,” Taako asked as Lup brushed his hair back. He could see her shake her head in the mirror, which wasn’t a surprise but still the slightest bit disappointing.

“One of us has gotta be on the outside to be able to pay bail,” she said. Taako opened his mouth to argue that he wasn’t going to need bail because he wasn’t gonna get caught when she continued, cutting him off. “Barry and I’ve got plans tonight anyway. Your thing will be less suspicious with one person. If it all goes well and you don’t get caught we can up our game next year and I’ll come too,” she finished. Taako pouted, but he couldn’t really argue with that.

“It’s gonna go great, so mark your calendar now,” he said. Lup stopped brushing at this point and started to braid his hair, one large braid with several smaller ones twisted in, dark purple gems to match his suit strung throughout it.

“Uhuh,” Lup said, not sounding too convinced. “Just try and let me know if you end up spending the night at some rich asshole’s hotel room so I don’t gotta worry if they threw you in the brig,” she added, and Taako rolled his eyes at that.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll be sure to shoot you a message if cha’ boy gets lucky,” he said, earning some exaggerated gagging from his sister.

“You know, they say the prince is single,” she said after a moment, a teasing tone to her voice that he knew was a joke. Taako snorted at that, Lup pulling his head back into place when he moved.

“Thanks but no thanks. I’m sure the prince is a catch and a half but we’re playing it safe, remember? I probably won’t even get to talk to the guy, he’ll be surrounded all night,” he said, which was actually kind of disappointing when he thought about it. He didn’t know much about the prince, but fuck if that wouldn’t earn him some bragging rights to say he got to talk to the guy. Maybe even flirt a little, just to say he did.

Still, he meant what he said to Lup. He was playing this safe. 

When Lup finished with his hair it was just about time to get going. Slipping on his shoes, he gave himself one last look in the mirror before twirling for Lup.

“What do you think?” he asked. His sister frowned, a look of concentration on her face as she look in his whole look.

“You could pass as one of the lesser royals, for sure. Maybe a duke?” she said, and when he huffed she grinned. “You look great bro, go knock em dead.”

Giving his sister a hug, Taako straightened out his suit one more time before heading out.

Walking to the palace, it seemed like he managed to get his timing pretty on point, a large crowd having formed around the front as he walked up. The majority were people who’d come to watch the event, but there was still a large chunk of it were ones actually entering.

Slipping behind a carriage, Taako waited until there was a large group of individuals heading in at once. Walking with confidence he joined them, and the guards were so preoccupied making sure that the crowds didn’t rush the groups of royals and celebrities that he managed to walk right through the gates without any issue.

And just like that, he was inside.

Taako took a moment to admire the room he was in, soaking in the accomplishment and maybe reeling a little that he’d actually succeeded. It was one thing to tell Lup over and over again that it would go fine, and another to actually be here.

The ballroom was enormous. Tall cathedral ceilings and large stained glass windows. The sun was just starting to set, and the light shining in through the colorful glass sent iridescent rainbows over everything. The floor was some sort of black stone that had a slight rainbow sheen to it as well, the look reminding Taako of raven or crow feathers.

It was gorgeous, and with a smug grin Taako quickly made his way into the crowd.

There was so much to take in, but as long as he gave a grin and a nod to anyone who looked at him most people seemed fine to leave him alone. No one knew everyone here and no one wanted to end up stepping on someone’s toes by admitting they didn’t know who they were. So it was a simple thing to make his way through the ballroom, grabbing the occasional hors d'oeuvres from the wait staff and keep on moving along.

If every so often some rather expensive looking silverware or decorative table piece ended up slipping into his bag, no one was paying enough attention to him to notice.

Taako told himself he was being safe though. He didn’t want to push his luck.

Except there really wasn’t all that much out in the main ballroom. A quick loop around and he’d already taken about as much as he could before anyone started to notice that things were going missing. This whole party was supposed to be a big social event, the main draw being talking to the other guests. Taako planned on getting to that part too for sure. He wanted to see how many of these pretty rich assholes he could convince into thinking some poor cook off the street was high class.

But first he wanted to make sure that this whole trip was worth it. Monetarily speaking. 

It was easy as anything to slip out of the ballroom towards the restrooms available for guests, and then to quickly move on past them into the palace proper.

This place was huge. It was clearly huge on the outside but being on the inside was another thing entirely. It seemed pretty damn empty too, most of the guards and staff were taking care of the gala now. So Taako didn’t have any trouble as he walked through large, decorated halls, grabbing any small statue or ornament he found hanging on the walls or in a display.

He’d yet to try to go into any room, since he couldn’t be certain that they were empty. He was pretty sure neither the queen or the prince had arrived to the party yet, and then there was always staff that could be milling about.

Taako had stopped to consider if he could manage to fit the small, but frankly gorgeous painting of a few birds sitting on a branch into his bag when he heard footsteps coming up behind him.

“Excuse me, guests are not permitted in this section of the palace during the gala. I’ll need to see some identification,” a voice said. Quickly spinning around, Taako pressed up against the wallpaper that probably cost more than his entire apartment and gave an innocent smile to the guard making a beeline for him. He looked to be an older man, short with a long beard.

“Oh? Where are the gala guests supposed to be?” he asked, sounding casual and confused. The guard frowned slightly at the question, but Taako couldn’t tell yet if it was from suspicion or annoyance.

“In the ballroom, the marked off surrounding areas, and the garden,” he explained, and Taako gave him a thankful grin as he nodded.

"Is that to the right or the left?" he asked, and okay that frown was definitely from annoyance now.

"To the right," he answered.

"Which- which way is that? I never learned..." he said, and it was a little hard not to laugh but he managed it.

"Why would you ask if you didn't- Okay, put out your hands and make Ls with them," the guard instructed, and Taako nodded eagerly, following along. "The one that's  _ not _ a proper L is the right," he explained, and Taako grinned like he just opened up some grand secret of the universe to him.

“Ah, okay I’ll just head over there right now! Thanks a bunch my man,” he said, but before he could leave the guard stepped in his way. Shit.

“Of course, you will be free to return to the gala  _ after _ you give me some identification,” he said, looking Taako over again. “As well as explain what you are doing so far from the designated areas,” he added.

“That? I was just waiting for someone, they said to wait by the bird painting,” he lied, and from the suspicious glare it didn’t seem like this guard wasn't buying it.

“Waiting for who?” he pressed, and Taako couldn’t give a name. This seemed like the kind of dude who would try to actually check up on any specific information.

“My fiance, of course,” he said, because trying to claim that he was related to anyone here would probably end bad too. It was easier to pretend he was some rich important person’s pretty date than try and explain why some sultan would bring their cousin to the biggest political event of the year.

The guard was still glaring at him though, not looking any more swayed than he’d been before.

“Sir, whoever your fiance is they will not be in this part of the castle. I recommend you give me your ID so that I may escort you back to the main ballroom with the rest of our guests,” he said, and Taako nodded quickly at that.

“For sure, for sure. Just give him like, five more minutes. I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” he said, and it was a lie but hey maybe in five minutes he would manage to think of some  _ other  _ way out of this. It didn’t seem like this shitty guard was going to give him that time though.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. If you do not comply now then I will take action,” he insisted. Which, yeah this wasn’t going great. Lup had insisted that this was only a bad idea if he got caught, and Taako agreed with her at the time. He was thinking of adjusting that claim slightly now though.

This was only a bad idea if he got caught and wasn’t able to get himself out of it.

“I told you, I’m just waiting for my fiance,” Taako insisted, and the old guard didn’t look like he believed him any more than he did the first two times. This conversation wasn’t going to last much longer if he didn’t do something, and so Taako was desperately trying to look around for some sort of out.

“And  _ I _ told  _ you _ that visitors are not allowed in this part of the palace. Now please show me some sort of identification or I will be forced to remove you from the premises,” the guard said, his hand resting oh so casually on the hilt of his sword now. Taako nodded quickly, moving like he was going to grab an ID out of his bag. He hadn’t brought one, because he was sure there would be a guest list. Even if he’d be thrown out anyway though it might have helped if he’d brought some sort of fake ID.

“Of course I can show you some- oh!” he stopped, something akin to hope starting to come back to him as he heard someone walking towards them from further into the castle. He’d been hoping for a distraction, but when he saw the guy who turned the corner Taako figured that yeah, okay, he could  _ work _ with this.

“I told you I was just waiting for my fiance! Babe, tell him this is all just a huge misunderstanding,” Taako said, and the guard turned to look at who Taako was speaking to. He was probably the most handsome man Taako had seen tonight, which had so far been a night of some exceedingly handsome men. Or actually, the most handsome man he’d  _ ever _ seen if he thought about it. His hair was braided back into a neat bun, decorated with gold that matched the rather modest make up he had on. His dark black suit was also simple, but it had a sheen similar to the floors of the ballroom that made it mesmerizing to look at. Taako wouldn’t have been surprised if it out cost everything in Taako’s bag.

He also looked thrown completely off guard by the situation, which Taako couldn’t blame him for. Still, Taako flashed him what he would consider a very winning smile, winking as the guard was still looking away.

And then the old guard dropped to a knee, and it was dawning on Taako that he might have miscalculated here.

“Prince Kravitz, I am terribly sorry for the disturbance. I do not know who this is but I will remove this liar from the castle immediately,” the guard said, and oh yeah. This was not his best move. Taako couldn’t do anything but stare in dumbfounded shock as the guard quickly got back to his feet and went to grab him. At least he did get to  _ see _ the prince before he had to leave though. That was something to write home about. The guard might try to throw him out so fast he wouldn’t even check his bag if he was lucky too.

Before the guard could get a hand on him though the prince walked forward, an amused grin on his face as he put a hand up for the old guy to stop.

“There’s no need for that,” he said, walking right up to Taako now and ignoring the look of confusion on the guard’s face. “Darling, I thought we both agreed to keep the news to ourselves until the public announcement,” the prince said, and it took a few long, dumbstruck seconds for Taako to realize what was happening.

He was actually playing along.

“I  _ know, _ but he wouldn’t stop pestering me!” he whined, pouting a little and moving to wrap himself around the prince’s arm. Because hey, he wouldn’t get another chance at this, might as well take advantage for all it’s worth.

“I apologize my liege, I did not know,” the guard said, and Prince Kravitz turned back towards him.

“That’s quite all right Leon. Your dedication in keeping the castle safe is appreciated,” he said, and Taako stuck his tongue out at the guard while the prince wasn’t looking. He quickly schooled his face back into something more mature than a six year old when he turned back towards him. “We haven’t had a chance to introduce you to the security staff yet, have we?” he asked, and Taako grinned as he shook his head.

“Yeah sorry, the uh, chariot traffic was real bad on the way over,” he said, turning back towards the guard who was apparently named Leon with as smug of a look as he could muster. “I’m Taako, from uh, New Elfington,” he added, and the guard did not look very impressed.

“Shall we get to the party Taako? I’m sorry to keep you waiting like this. They insist on the royal family entering last,” Kravitz said, the absolute picture of politeness as he let Taako just hang off his arm. There was no stumbling in the slightest as he picked up his name either, acting like he’d known it this whole time, it was honestly impressive.

“Don’t even worry about it babe, let’s go,” Taako said, and well this day had certainly turned around. He’d been pretty confident when he told Lup that he wouldn’t even see the prince, he couldn’t imagine her face when he told her about this. Sure, everyone always said the prince was handsome and kind and blah blah blah, but you couldn’t trust that sort of thing until you saw it yourself. Handsome was definitely a check, and he wasn’t sure if he would count going along with a stranger’s blatant lie as kind, but it sure was a hell of a lot more  _ fun _ than Taako expected the prince to be.

As they walked the guard followed along, and Taako got the sense he still didn’t entirely trust him yet. They were walking arm in arm though, and Kravitz seemed to take that as an opportunity to lean down, whispering in his ear.

“New Elfington huh? I wonder what kind of trade deals our marriage could arrange with such an  _ exotic _ place,” Kravitz said, the sarcasm clear in his voice. Taako didn’t expect the prince to have such a sense of humor, he was into it.

“I’ll tell you all about em over some fancy cocktails, what do you say?” he asked, and Kravitz grinned at that.

“I’d say we have quite a bit to discuss, yes,” he said, which was fair. He could understand that the prince might have some questions about all this. Taako was lucky as all hell that the dude was apparently willing to fuck with some random guard instead of throw out an obvious criminal.

When they got to the entrance to the ball the guard quickly stepped in front of them. Taako had almost forgotten he was there, and from the way Kravitz nearly stumbled he was guessing he did too. 

“My lord, allow me to introduce the  _ both _ of you to the guests,” Leon said, and the panic was starting to come back again. Being announced to the whole ball while entering with the prince was not in any way playing it safe.

“Oh that’s not-” he started, Kravitz quickly shaking his head as well.

“There’s really no need,” the prince insisted, but with a pointed look at Taako Leon quickly went through the door. The two of them were left frozen in place as they heard the guard begin to loudly announce to the ballroom full of the most powerful and influential people in the surrounding kingdoms.

“Everyone! Please welcome your Prince Kravitz,” he started, and Taako should run at this point. If he ran then there was no proof that he was ever here, but all he could do was listen in horror, still clinging to the prince’s arm as the guard continued.  _ “As well as _ his fiance, Taako of New Elfington,” he finished, and even on the other side of the door they could hear the shocked murmurs.

“My mom’s going to kill me,” Kravitz muttered, a dread in his voice that Taako could feel down in his soul. Before he could commiserate on his similar upcoming death at the hands of his sister the large double doors were opening in front of them.

Standing at the top of a staircase now, Taako could see that quite literally every eye in the all was on the two of them. Kravitz put on a clearly fake grin and Taako could do nothing but follow along as he led them both down the stairs.

He was starting to think this might have been a mistake.

There was no fucking way he was getting out of this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this might look familiar to you if you follow me on my [tumblr](https://kravkalackin.tumblr.com/) but I fell in love with the idea and decided to turn it into a full fic. Not sure how long it's gonna be yet, but I'm looking forward to writing more of these disaster boys. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	2. Playing Along

Kravitz didn’t know what he was thinking when he decided to go along with the ruse this man had been trying to pull on one of his guards.

Or well, that wasn’t entirely true. He knew what he’d been thinking at the time. He’d thought that the man was breathtakingly beautiful, and that he was either confident enough to lie about being engaged to the prince or hadn’t realized who he was, either of which couldn’t help but intrigue him. He thought it might be fun to play along, and Leon was such a stickler for the rules that he was sure to throw him out if he hadn’t.

Kravitz wouldn’t have gotten a chance to talk to him if Leon threw him out, which seemed like such a waste. So he played along, smiling and letting this Taako person hang off his arm as they walked to the ballroom. He had no idea who he was, but he had a strong suspicion that he wasn’t actually supposed to be at this event. Taako didn’t seem any less confident because of that though, and Kravitz did not typically look forward to this ball but for a moment he thought this one might turn out to be fun.

And then Leon betrayed him. Stabbed him in the back as quickly and efficiently as a well trained assassin. There wasn’t anything he could do as Leon announced his arrival and introduced the man Kravitz knew nothing about besides his  _ name _ as his fiance.

The reaction from the crowd was immediate, and it wasn’t like Kravitz couldn’t understand why. He had a reputation for being a bit of a shut in, he didn’t date often and when he did the relationships never lasted long. He didn’t think that was unreasonable on his part. It was hard finding someone who was actually interested in  _ him _ when he was the prince of one of the most powerful countries in the world. He couldn’t fault people for being more invested in his position than him, but it sure did get annoying.

And now suddenly he was  _ apparently _ engaged. No build up, no tabloids about a mysterious new suitor or speculations on a new boyfriend. All of that skipped straight to an engagement, to someone Kravitz would bet good money on no one in this room recognizing. Of course there as going to be a buzz of shock and questions.

Somehow he managed to force a polite but confident smile onto his face as he started down the stairs. Taako was less hanging off his arm now and more clinging to it, and when Kravitz chanced a glance over at him all that confidence from before seemed to have evaporated. Considering the circumstances Kravitz could sympathize, even if this was all  _ his _ fault if he thought about it.

As soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs they were bombarded with questions, a rather large crowd forming around them.

“Prince Kravitz, what do you mean fiance?”

“How long has this been arranged for?”

“Did he say  _ New Elfington?” _

“Does the Queen approve of your choice?”

“When is the wedding?”

“Okay just calm down everyone, calm down,” Kravitz cut in, putting a hand up and managing to starve off the worst of the questioning. “We know this is a big surprise for…  _ everybody, _ but we thought it would be some fun news to start off this very important occasion with. Now we promise official word will be sent from the palace later in the week to answer  _ all _ your questions, but for now I would like to enjoy the night with my new fiance,” he finished, falling back into a carefully constructed polite mask for these sorts of things.

Thankfully it seemed to work, the crowd dispersing just enough that he could escape it, making sure to pull Taako along with him as gently as possible. He felt bad for the guy, who he could say at this point had clearly gotten in way over his head. As they walked it was clear that people were still following them, watching and gossiping and trying to figure out as much as they could about the ‘new royal couple’ as they could.

“Are you alright?” Kravitz asked, leaning down to whisper into Taako’s ear. It was subtle, he wouldn’t have been able to tell if Taako wasn’t holding onto him so tightly, but he was pretty sure he was shaking.

“Oh just peachy. This is fine, everything is  _ fine,” _ he said, and Kravitz could take an educated guess from his tone of voice that things probably weren’t all that fine.

“Would you like to go to the garden for some air?” he asked, because Kravitz was  _ used _ to having all eyes on him, and right now even he was starting to feel pretty overwhelmed. Sure it didn’t help that he couldn’t stop thinking about how he was possibly going to explain this to his mother, but none of this was good.

Taako nodded, but when Kravitz started to lead them towards the large doors opened to the gardens he stopped. When he looked back down at him to ask what was wrong Taako was quickly scanning around them.

“Before we do that let’s just…  _ there,” _ he said, and Kravitz felt himself get dragged as Taako pulled him over to one of the wait staff. Grabbing a wine glass he immediately downed the whole thing, before grabbing another and turning towards Kravitz with a smile. “Okay, now we can do the garden thing,” he said, some of that confidence from before back.

It was enough to make Kravitz laugh, grabbing a glass of wine as well before nodding and leading him out to the garden.

It was a bit easier to breathe once they were outside. The gardens around the palace were large, Kravitz usually came out here when he needed to escape from the suffocating attention during these types of events. He could tell that more people were following along than usual, and tightening his grip the slightest bit on Taako’s arm he started walking a bit faster.

“I think I can get us alone for a moment, just stick with me,” he whispered, Taako nodded along. It didn’t take long to get to the hedge maze, and he had always appreciated it as a child. He rarely used it as it was intended to, instead crawling his way through the bushes to reach the center where it as harder to find him as fast as possible. Despite that he still knew the proper way without much difficulty at this point. After a few turns anyone who had been trying to follow them seemed to have given up, but even still Kravitz didn’t stop until they reached the small stone bench at the center of the maze.

As soon as they stopped Taako let go of his arm, going over to the bench and collapsing down on it. Kravitz watched as he downed the last of his second glass of wine before finally turning to look back at him.

“Okay so, you’re never gonna believe this, but this was  _ not _ how I was planning for my night to go,” Taako said. 

“Yes, this is a bit out of left field for me too,” he said, a thought occurring to him then. “Is your name  _ even _ Taako?” he asked, because he had no clue. He literally knew nothing about this person and now everyone thought he was going to marry him! And he had no idea how to get out of it and his mother was going to  _ kill him. _

“Yeah of course! I didn’t lie about that one okay, I swear,” Taako said, which was some relief. At least the one thing he knew about him was actually true. “Did lie about the New Elfington thing though, that’s- that’s not a real place,” he added, and Kravitz raise an eyebrow as slowly as possible at that.

“You don’t say? I never would have guessed,” he said, sarcasm dry in his voice.

“I was put on the spot okay! Improv is hard,” Taako said, and Kravitz rolled his eyes a little at that. Taako huffed in annoyance, crossing his arms and setting him with a glare. Kravitz had actually been looking forward to possibly getting to know the elf tonight, but any hope of enjoying that was shot now. “Listen, you’re the prince, alright? Can you just like, fix this? Because don’t get me wrong, you’re a real catch and all but I did not plan on getting engaged tonight.”

“Fix this? I don’t know how to fix this! People have been writing in the  _ papers _ about my romantic life since I was old enough  _ to _ date! If I knew a way to stop it once something got out I would have used it already. You’re the reason we’re in this mess,  _ you _ think of something,” he snapped. It was maybe a little unfair, but now that they had a few moments alone Kravitz could really feel the panic creeping in. This was going to be national news by morning.  _ International news _ from how many foreign leaders were present tonight. He was already at the age where royals from other nations were starting to push for him to get married, preferably to one of their heirs but still. There was no going  _ back _ from an announcement like this.

_ “My _ fault? You played along! You didn’t have to play along!” Taako shouted back, and Kravitz winced at that, shushing him and quickly trying to see over the hedges for if anyone was close by. Taako seemed to get the hint quick enough, continuing in a much lower voice. “Why the hell  _ did _ you play along, anyway?” he asked, and Kravitz could feel his face heat up at the question.

“I- these parties are honestly just…  _ dreadfully  _ boring. Someone bold faced claiming to be engaged to the prince was the funniest thing I’d seen in a while. I thought you’d be able to make the rest of the night a little more interesting,” he explained sheepishly, leaving out the parts about how attractive he found the man and that if he played along he’d have an excuse to talk to him. Those felt like not great things to bring up at the moment. Even still, just that managed to get a smirk from Taako.

“Well, if you wanted interesting you sure as fuck got it,” he said, and Kravitz sighed at that. Stopping his pacing, he went and slumped down on the bench next to Taako. It was closer than he would politely sit next to a near stranger in normal circumstances, but the bench was small and hey, this was his  _ fiance _ after all.

“Not this interesting,” he said, looking up at the sky. The sun had almost fully set, just a few small streaks of orange cutting through the blue to the west now. Kravitz could usually spend a good portion of these balls hiding away like this, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t have as much time as he usually did. “I wonder if I can have Leon tried for libel for this,” he muttered, thinking out loud.

“You’re the prince, pretty sure you can do whatever you want,” Taako said, which wasn’t exactly how it worked but Kravitz wasn’t going to argue with him on this one. “So uh, what’s the game plan?” he asked, and that was a good fucking question.

“I do not know if there’s much we can do but continue to fake this engagement for the duration of the party. Everyone will expect it and if we tried to explain now it'll just cause even more of a scandal and confusion. Afterwards we can talk to my mother and she should be able to think of some way to sort all of this out,” he said. Taako’s head turned swiftly towards him at that, an uncertain expression on his face.

“We? As in like, both of us? Talking to the Queen?” he asked, and Kravitz could understand someone’s hesitation towards the idea. Just because he could understand it though didn’t mean he was going to let him out of it.

“Yes, of course. I’m not going to do this on my own,” he said, and Taako didn’t look happy with that but thankfully he didn’t seem inclined to argue.

“So we just gotta pretend for tonight then? And then tomorrow your mom’ll handle the whole ‘lol just kidding’ with the press and everything?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded a bit hesitantly.

“That might be simplifying it all a bit but yes, we should hopefully only have to pretend for tonight,” he said, and Taako let out a sigh of relief at that. They should probably get back to the party soon, Kravitz could only  _ imagine _ the rumors that would start to spread about him immediately disappearing off with his ‘fiance’ at the party. Still, he found himself taking a moment to look over the man sitting next to him, trying his best to read him and honestly not being able to get much.

“Is it alright if I ask you something before we head back to the party?” Kravitz asked, and Taako nodded.

“Shoot,” he said, casual as anything. Kravitz could count on one hand the number of people who felt comfortable enough to be casual around him. This man had known him for less than an hour and was already there, as if his title meant nothing to him.

“Who  _ are _ you?” Kravitz asked, getting a nervous laugh out of the man. It was a nice laugh, louder than people usually were around him, and it really was a shame that the night had gone so off the rails. Kravitz would have liked the opportunity to spend time with him earnestly, instead of all this.

“Uh, I’m  _ Taako? _ Ya know, from New Elfington?” he said, actually managing to get a snort of amusement out of Kravitz.

“So I’ve heard,” he said, not about to let it go that easily. “I’ve never seen you around at one of these events before though, and well, I hope it’s not out of line for me to say, but you stand out quite a bit from the type of people I’m used to dealing with,” he added. Taako paused at that, seeming to think it over for a moment.

“I’m gonna choose to take that as a compliment,” he said.

“You should. I mentioned just how boring these things tend to be, right?” he said, getting a grin out of Taako at that. He didn’t say anything for a bit, and Kravitz could see some sort of debate running across his face before he finally seemed to come to some sort of answer.

“Alright, fuck it. You want the honest to god truth?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded. Taako paused before answering, seeming to enjoy keeping him in suspense.

“I’m a chef. I’m saving up to open my own bakery here in Neverwinter,” Taako said, some obvious pride in his voice. Kravitz raised his eyebrows in surprise, trying to imagine this downright gorgeous man covered in flour and sweat.

“Really?” he asked, and even though it was such a simple answer he couldn’t help but feel a little impressed. Taako nodded, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking right now.

“Yep, sorry if that’s not exactly riveting for you,” he said with a shrug. That pride that had been there before diminished some, instead Taako sounding almost self conscious. Kravitz quickly shook his head, because that wasn’t what he was going for at all.

“No, no, it’s great. I can’t cook to save my life,” he assured, a little relieved when he smiled a bit in amusement at that. “So, no sort of political or business connections at all then?” he asked, Taako snorting in response before shaking his head.

“Nope. Nada, I just made sure to dress the part and walked into the palace with a big group,” he explained, getting a startled laugh out of Kravitz.

“Alright,  _ that _ will be good to know for when we’re setting up security next year,” he said, although looking at Taako he couldn’t blame any of the guards for assuming he belonged here. He was genuinely one of the most beautiful people Kravitz had ever seen. It was hard to believe he was simply a cook.

“Prince Kravitz! Prince Kravitz are you and your fiance over here?” a voice called from somewhere off in the hedge maze. It shouldn’t be a surprise, Kravitz figured they had been lucky to get away from any sort of prying eyes for as long as they had. Standing up from the bench, he held out a hand for Taako to take.

“It seems like it’s about time for us to head back to the festivities. Do you think you’re feeling up to it? I’m sure we could think of some excuse to keep you out of the spotlight if it’s too much,” he said, but Taako shook his head at the offer, taking his hand and standing up.

“Like you said, we only gotta pretend for one night. Cha’ boy can handle it now that I’ve got a couple glasses of alcohol in me and aren’t ya know, in the  _ middle _ of an active breakdown,” he said, and Kravitz could understand that well enough.

He still had Taako’s hand in his own, and not giving himself any time to over-think it he leaned down, bringing his hand up to his lips and kissing the back of it.

“Ready to return to the party then,  _ my dear?” _ he asked, smirking at the blush that spread over Taako’s face. It was an incredibly satisfying sight, especially since Taako did not seem to anywhere near as caught up and charmed my his title as most people were.

“Of course  _ darling,” _ Taako responded after a moment. With that Kravitz stood up straight, adjusting so that Taako could hold onto the crook of his arm instead, since it already seemed like that was a bit more comfortable for the man. As they started making their way back through the maze Kravitz spoke quietly.

“So, I should be able to do most of the talking if that’s easier for you. These events can be kind of a lot on a  _ good _ day,” he offered. Taako waved away the concern though, and he certainly seemed a bit more grounded than he had when they were first thrown into it.

“Cha’ boy can  _ also _ be a lot on a good day, I’ve got this,” he insisted, winking at him for good measure. That would have been somewhere between endearing and incredibly flustering if Kravitz wasn’t already dreading the PR fallout that was sure to come from all of this.

“Let me rephrase that, it would be best if you let me do most of the talking,” he said, earning a pout from Taako.

“Fine, lucky for you I’m great at playing trophy husband too,” he relented, not sounding anywhere near as enthused by this idea.

“Well, you certainly look the part,” Kravitz said, the words slipping out before he could properly register what he was saying. By some grace Taako didn’t look offended, instead practically preening at the comment.

“Yeah, not bad for some nobody cook off the streets, am I right?” he asked, and Kravitz could understand what he meant by that but he still found himself frowning at the implication.

“I would hardly call you nobody,” he said. They reached the end of the hedge maze before Taako could respond, which brought a stop to that conversation. They’d only been gone for about fifteen minutes, which meant there was still a whole lot left of the gala to get through before the night could be over.

As soon as they were back out in the open a thankfully small group of nobles walked up to the two of them. Kravitz recognized the three from similar events, quickly switching himself into diplomacy with a smile.

“Prince Kravitz, it’s an honor to see you,” the lord said, bowing slightly before turning towards Taako, “and to meet your fiance,” he added, holding out a hand. Taako shook it, grinning at him.

“Likewise,” he said, and Kravitz supposed he hadn’t been lying about being able to handle this so far. He seemed to be doing well, no sign of the obvious panic like before.

“Yes, it’s a pleasure seeing you all again. Tell me, how has the gala been so far?” he asked, wondering if there was going to be a way tonight to make polite conversation that didn’t get turned back around into talk of his ‘engagement.’

“Oh, it’s been wonderful. All anyone can talk about is the happy new couple of course,” he said, which answered that question with a pretty resounding no. “Your mother is being quite tight lipped about it all,” the noble added, and Kravitz tried not to let his nerves show at that. Of course she had arrived by now, that was probably a part of the reason why they’d managed to catch a break and some alone time. Everyone went to badger her for answers instead.

“Has she now?” he asked, and the laugh that came out of him was definitely a bit more nervous than he would have liked.

“Completely. It’s got some people thinking that not even the Queen knew about your surprise announcement,” the lord said, and well that wasn’t a good sign. There wasn’t much that could throw his mother off her game, but he couldn’t blame her if this managed to be the thing that did it.

“Of course, I insisted that simply wasn’t the prince’s style,” the lord’s wife interjected. 

“Of course,” he echoed with a nod, which did not feel like his most convincing line.

“So, Taako,” the noblemen said, turning to the elf still at his side. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of New Elfington before,” he said, and of course this was going to come up.

“Oh yeah, it’s uh, pretty far, and small,” Taako said, receiving an unconvincing hum from the man, and his face was polite but Kravitz had seen that kind of politeness before. He could see the calculating judgment behind it. “More of a city than like, a kingdom,” he added, mumbling at this point.

“They can buy a map if they wish to find its exact location dear,” Kravitz cut in, despite the fact that a map wouldn’t actually help them. Still, anyone with half a brain would be able to tell that it wasn’t real, so at this point it was just rude to call him out on it. They thankfully seemed to get the hint, smiling politely and taking a step back as Kravitz glared at them.

“We’ll be sure to do so,” the lord said, and his smile and voice were all polite but Kravitz could tell that he’d pissed him off. Just another thing that he was going to have to deal with in the fallout of this night, and he was sure there was more to come. “We’ll let you get to the rest of your evening. Again a pleasure to see you,” he added, and Kravitz nodded.

“The same to you,” he said, leading Taako away afterwards. Once they were out of earshot Taako spoke up.

“That went… well?” he said, sounding much more like a guess than anything. Kravitz sighed, debating on if he should get another glass of wine or not. He should probably keep his mind about him if he was going to survive this night with any sort of dignity intact.

“It wasn’t as terrible as it could have been,” he said, and even though it was clear that people were watching them no one else had taken the plunge to try and approach them as they walked about the garden. They would have to go back inside eventually, and that would be the real challenge, but Kravitz figured he could put it off for a little bit longer.

He was surprised when he felt Taako tugging on his arm, making a subtle motion for him to come closer. Leaning down, he started to whisper in his ear.

“You don’t gotta defend me ya know. Cha’ boy can handle the fact that he made a stupid pull with New Elfington,” he said. Kravitz paused for a moment, because he didn’t expect Taako to call him out on that and it took him a bit to even put into words why he had bothered to jump in with that in the first place. He was hoping to divorce himself of all of this as soon as possible after all, but still.

It was strange that Taako honestly seemed to be on the same page. Despite having every reason to want to milk this mistake for all it was worth, he seemed determined to make sure it was cleared up as soon as possible. Kravitz was certain that if it had been near about anyone else, commoner or noble, he could be feeling pressure by his ‘fiance’ to go through with the engagement since it had already been announced.

The fact that Taako  _ wasn’t _ trying to pull anything like that left Kravitz with a level of respect for the cook that was hard to articulate.

“As far as the world is concerned, for tonight you are my fiance. It would be beyond dishonorable of me to not stand by your side,” he said at last, getting an amused chuckled out of Taako.

“That’s cute, you’re all noble and shit,” he said, actually going so far as to poke Kravitz’s nose. Kravitz had turned towards him at this point, and if they were right up on each other it helped with the act  _ and _ made it so that no one else could actually hear what they were saying.

And if Taako’s face was  _ very _ close to his, well he’d seen him drink at least two glasses of wine rapidly back to back. He doubted the man even noticed.

“I mean, I  _ am _ a prince,” he said, as if Taako would have somehow forgotten this fact. Taako’s grin widened ever so slightly, and this close now Kravitz could make out the gap between his front teeth, as well as the freckles dusted across his face. It was probably impolite to stare, but it wasn't as if Taako was looking away either.

“Kravitz dear!” a voice Kravitz recognized immediately called. His head shot up, and he knew that any semblance of dignity or charm had abandoned him, only to be replaced by the expression of a child caught breaking some priceless family heirloom.

“Mom!” he choked out, and as soon as the word left his mouth his arms were empty. Where Taako  _ had _ been was just air, the startled man a solid two feet away from him now, his hands held up as if at a crime scene.

“I wasn’t- nothing!” he yelped, and Kravitz could already feel all surrounding eyes on them, if they hadn’t been already. This was not the reaction any respectable prince and his fiance would have to being addressed by the Queen at a social event.

“I uh,” he coughed, trying to get some semblance of control back. “I mean, your majesty,” he said, bowing. When he came up and shot a glance over at Taako, he was still standing with his hands up. “Taako put your hands down,” he hissed at him, too far away for proper whispering to be effective. He followed suit immediately, bowing quickly afterwards as well.

“Please relax dear, I simply was hoping to see how my son and his fiance are doing,” she said, and it was hard to tell what his mother was thinking on a good day. Right here and now, Kravitz had absolutely no idea what she was going through her brain.

The only thing he knew for sure was that this night was only going to get even harder from here on out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i'm gonna aim for this fic to be updated weekly, probably on Tuesdays, but since the first chapter was mostly the section I'd already posted to my tumblr I thought I'd post the second chapter up a little early. I'm having fun and oh boy am I glad that others seem to be as well. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	3. Blessings

Taako knew he wasn’t exactly the most respectful person in the world. He did not  _ want _ to be. As far as he was concerned if someone wanted his respect they could earn it, and it didn’t matter who they were. So far Kravitz was doing a surprisingly good job of earning that respect, which was kind of a surprise.

Despite that, Taako was still a realist. He could understand that this was the goddamn  _ Queen _ and if he fucked up here he could be in some major hot water. He was already in some major hot water with this whole impromptu surprise engagement. He was just banking on Kravitz being a good enough dude to get him out of the worst of it, but he didn’t know how far that could go if he pissed the queen off royally.

“How has the gala been for you mother?” Kravitz asked, and Taako didn’t exactly know the dude all that well yet. Still, he could feel for the instant terror that he was trying to hide. Of course, Taako was pretty sure that as the prince the most he’d get would be a slap on the wrist and a disapproving lecture from dear mom here.

Now Taako, if this went wrong for him he could be facing life in fucking prison for all he knew. Like, he’d told Lup that he wouldn’t need bail but this night had gone so off the rails so fast that it was hard to remember which way was right side up anymore.

“Oh good, good. Extremely interesting,” she said, which yeah that was probably fair. If nothing else this night sure as fuck counted as ‘interesting.' Kravitz laughed nervously at that, and it was real hard to place the smile that formed on the Queen’s face then. All Taako could tell was that it was damn terrifying when she directed it at him.

“Taako was it? I’m incredibly sorry that we did not have a chance to meet before now,” she said, and Taako shook his head, trying to keep his eyes bowed respectfully. 99.9% of the time he could not give a fuck that he didn’t know proper high class social etiquette and would take any chance he got to flaunt his vagrant disregard for their rules in their face.

Now was that .1% of time where he actually did kind of give a shit about if he was doing any of this right.

“Don’t even worry about it. It’s uh, ya know, better late than never, am I right?” he said, and he was kind of regretting jumping so far away from Kravitz at this point. He would have liked to have some sort of physical body shield close by if she managed to see through the ruse and throw him into the dungeon. When he chanced a glance up at the Queen she had what Taako would guess was an amused smile on her face as she nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I suppose you are,” she said, and Taako let out the smallest sigh of relief at that. It didn’t last for long though, the Queen continuing the conversation with barely a lull. “This is your first time at the annual ball, isn’t it?” she asked, and Taako nodded.

“Sure is,” he answered.

“How have you been enjoying it so far?” the Queen asked, and it sounded like a genuine question. Honestly if it wasn’t for the fact that she was both the Queen and the mother of the dude he was currently pretending to be surprise engaged to her whole air would have been pretty comforting. As it was though, Taako was not going to trust that it wasn’t a trap.

“Oh yeah it’s been great. Real uh, real swanky,” he said, kind of wishing he could die. Despite that she chuckled softly, and it was definitely the kind of laugh he expected a Queen to have. He wouldn’t call it delicate, but it was definitely proper.

“Well, I’m glad you’ve been having a good time,” she said before turning her attention back to Kravitz. It was still hard to tell what she was thinking, but Taako was pretty sure she at least didn’t look mad as she walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I need to greet the rest of our guests, so I’ll let you two get back to your evening,” she said, and Kravitz nodded at that.

“Thank you your majesty,” he said, and when he leaned forward Taako almost couldn’t hear what he whispered to her. That was probably a good thing, since it meant anyone who was standing farther away than he was couldn’t eavesdrop. “And I’m sorry, I promise we’ll talk about this after the-” he started, but the Queen didn’t let him finish, nodding and patting his shoulder before starting to walk away.

“Of course dear,” she said, and it wasn’t long before she was over at another group and mingling happily. After a moment Kravitz walked back over to him, looking hesitant to actually touch him again. Figuring he’d already came this far Taako closed the distance, wrapping an arm around his waist as he leaned into his side. The flustered look from the prince was definitely worth it when Taako grinned up at him.

“Well? The Queen said to get back to our evening. I figured we should probably listen,” he said, and Kravitz nodded after a moment.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” he said, and Taako could see as he glanced around their surroundings to figure out the next best course of action. “Perhaps we should head back to the ballroom,” he added, and Taako could agree to that.

“Sure, sounds good babe,” he said. After taking a deep breath Kravitz seemed to get himself back to whatever royal facade he had going on, beginning to lead Taako back into the ballroom. It probably helped the whole engagement rumor that they had barely let go of each other all night so far, which yeah whenever Taako stopped to actually think about it got a little weird. He wasn’t actually a touchy guy, but the thing was he didn’t actually need to be for this. If there was one thing he was good at it was putting on a show, and this was all one big show.

“So we want this all to look believable, right?” Taako asked, keeping his voice a whisper as they headed into the ballroom. Kravitz cocked his head to the side at that, giving him a small questioning look.

“That would be simplest, yes,” Kravitz said, and his gaze turned slightly suspicious now. “Why? Do you have something in mind?” he asked, and Taako grinned a little bit wider.

“Nothing huge. Just figured my fiance would like to ask me to dance at this big fancy event is all,” he said, because he was already in way over his head. If the Queen was going to kill him she was gonna kill him, so at this point he might as well have fun and see how much he could squeeze out of this night. Dancing seemed like small potatoes when compared to being publicly engaged to the prince, but it was about the principle of the thing.

Kravitz’s cheeks darkened some for a moment, before he nodded. Taako was pretty sure he managed to fluster him again, and yeah that wasn’t gonna get old anytime soon.

“Of course dear,” he said, stepping away only to hold out a hand towards Taako. “If you would do me the honor?” he asked, smiling just enough to make Taako’s heart feel obnoxiously loud in his chest. It probably wasn’t audible over the house of the music playing and the people chattering around them. Taako still did his best to cover it up with a confident smirk as he took Kravitz’s hand.

“I mean, I’m the one who suggested it, so sure,” he said. Kravitz didn’t respond, instead adjusting their grip and placing Taako’s free hand on his shoulder, resting his other on the small of his back as he began to guide them. Taako let him take the lead, mostly because he didn’t actually know how to dance. At least not formally like this, he hadn’t thought about that when he suggested it.

If Kravitz didn’t realize that at first, he definitely did when he had to fight back wincing every time Taako accidentally kicked him in the shins or stepped on his toes.

“Not too many ballroom lessons in New Elfington?” he asked after a particularly bad stumble on Taako’s part. Which was fair, Kravitz was definitely taking the brunt of the damage here, but Taako still huffed. He was doing his best out here.

“Nah, we’re more into hoedowns and line dances around those parts,” he said, getting a chuckle out of Kravitz. Slowly Taako started to get into the pattern of it as he let himself get led. He was pretty sure they were going a lot slower than most of the other couples here, but he figured as long as the prince was still able to walk after this he was good. “Honestly, I mostly suggested this because people can’t talk to us while we’re dancing,” he added, speaking a little quieter and pulling himself closer to Kravitz.

“That’s-” Kravitz started to say, before pausing with a thoughtful look on his face. “That’s actually a good idea,” he said, and Taako grinned at that. He was almost able to move with Kravitz fluidly at this point. Step, glide, step turn, glide, step, over and again.

“Of course it’s a good idea. All my ideas are good ideas,” he said, and Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that, a skeptical look on his face.

“Is that so?” he asked, and Taako nearly stumbled back when Kravitz moved in close. “So sneaking into the ball then was a good idea? Pretending to be engaged to the prince?” he asked, whispering right in Taako’s ear. If Kravitz couldn’t  _ hear _ his heart beating he could probably damn well feel it at this point. Taako told himself that it’d been a while since he’d had someone this close to him before. And say what you want about the prince, no one was gonna deny that he was hot as a demon lounging on the beach.

“Oh for sure. Some of my best ones yet,” he said, and that wasn’t strictly true but Taako was not exactly one to admit when he fucked up if he could help it. Kravitz chuckled softly, unfortunately pulling back some so that they were a more respectable distance apart.

Or well, not unfortunately. Thankfully.  _ Thankfully _ he pulled back so that his lips weren’t so close to Taako’s ear they were practically tickling him.

“I see, so this is all some grand plan then?” he asked, still speaking quietly. Taako nodded, and he decided this was a lot more fun when he was the one flustering the prince, not the other way around.

“Of course, you’re only figuring that out now?” he said, and sure this wasn’t a plan and he knew that Kravitz could tell, but it didn’t hurt to pretend he had some idea he knew what he was doing.

“You’re a fast learner,” Kravitz said after a moment of quiet. Taako raised an eyebrow at that, not sure what he meant. In response Kravitz glanced down at their feet. “You’re picking it up well is all, which I will admit is a relief for me,” he explained, and Taako snorted at that.

“Can’t wait to brag to everyone I know that not only did I dance with the prince, I really managed to leave a mark, ya know?” he joked.

“Oh some of those are gonna leave a mark alright,” Kravitz muttered, which was fair. Still he was right, despite the occasional stumble here and there Taako had definitely improved from the start of the dance.

“The song’s coming to an end. I’m going to dip you now,” Kravitz whispered, and Taako barely had time to process the words before he was doing exactly that. There was a brief moment of panic where Taako was sure he was being dropped on his ass, but then he could feel Kravitz’s arms holding him in place. The smirk on the prince’s face got steadily wider the more Taako could feel himself blushing.

And then he pulled them both back up with a twirl, and there was a small smattering of applause from the other guests around them. Which, right. Everyone was still watching every damn thing they did because this was the hottest celebrity gossip of the goddamn decade.

“I think they liked that,” Kravitz whispered, still looking smug as fuck and okay, two could play at this game.

“I think they’ll like this even better,” he whispered back. There was a brief look of confusion on Kravitz’s face, but before he could ask what he meant by that Taako pulled him in for a kiss.

It was a quick, altogether chaste kiss. Nothing more than a three second peck on the lips. Despite that when he pulled back the prince looked stunned, staring at him in a wide eyed fluster. It didn’t last too long, his brain seeming to come back to when the crowd started to clap even louder.

“Told ya,” Taako whispered, and Kravitz gave a polite nod and smile at the surrounding crowd before taking Taako’s arm and starting to pull him off of the dance floor. He didn’t stop until they were pretty far from the crowd, and at this point Taako was actually starting to feel a little bad. Kravitz had at least  _ warned _ him about the dip.

“Too far?” he asked, and Kravitz turned towards him, slight confusion on his face before he quickly shook his head.

“No, of course not. You’re my fiance after all,” he said, and Taako guessed that meant it was alright as a part of the ruse. “I just think my legs can only take so much dancing,” he added, and alright, Taako would let him have that excuse.

People started coming up to them in smaller groups after that, and it seemed like they were in the talking part of the ball. Taako didn’t recognize any of the people really, but he could tell they were all some sort of capital I important. As annoying as it was he let Kravitz take the lead when it came to talking to them, and everything was about the same thing. Some people were better at pushing the subject more subtly than others, but it was clear that all anyone wanted to talk about what this fun new engagement thing they had going on.

And more than that, everyone was particularly interested in who  _ he _ was. Kravitz didn’t seem intent on letting any of these impromptu interviews get very far though, jumping in before questions got too personal. Taako had to say it was kind of impressive at how well he was able to direct a conversation.

“So, whens the wedding?” the latest person who had managed to squirm their way into a conversation about the hottest gossip to hit the country in like twenty years asked.

“Oh, we haven’t picked a date yet,” Kravitz answered easily, and Taako hummed as he thought over the idea.

“Can’t beat a nice fall wedding though. If you want the best food that’s when to do it,” he said, and he wasn’t actually considering it but he doubted anyone could tell. Not even Kravitz, which was even more fun. 

“A fall wedding it is then, I suppose,” he said, and Taako grinned at that. Sure, Taako was not looking to actually get married here, hell he was pretty damn sure that even actually dating the prince wasn’t ever gonna fly. Still, he could get used to this. He was definitely going to miss having the most gorgeous dude in the country damn near waiting on him hand and foot.

Really though as the night went on Taako could start to see what Kravitz meant by this thing being boring. It was a lot of talking, and the food and wine was great at first, but the more he ate the more it lost its luster. It had that thing a lot of the super rich food had where things were included  _ just _ to include them, not because it actually went good together. It could do with some editing, and really the gold leaf wasn’t as impressive as the chefs thought it was.

Maybe the fact that he was hovering by the food as Kravitz entertained foreign dignitaries was kind of rude, but hey he said to let him do most of the talking. Trying the new set of desserts the wait staff brought out, Taako paused. It took him a moment to place it, but as soon as he did he nearly choked, running back over to where he’d ended up sort of wandering away from Kravitz. He couldn’t be blamed, he didn’t have the best attention span.

“Kravitz! Hey Krav, eat this!” he said, slamming into Kravitz as he shoved the dessert in his face. He didn’t pay much attention to whoever he had been talking to, only noticing that they looked surprised and offended at his sudden interruption. Kravitz for his part also looked startled, grabbing Taako by the shoulder to keep him from fully knocking him over.

“Why? Is everything okay?” he asked, and Taako ignored the question, continuing to push the small chocolate at him.

“Just try it,” he insisted. Kravitz have a slightly exasperated sigh but didn’t argue anymore, taking the dessert and popping it in his mouth. Taako watched expectantly as he did, but he only seemed to get more confused.

“It’s fine? What’s the problem?” he asked, and Taako huffed.

“How much did you  _ pay _ for that?” he pressed, and Kravitz glanced nervously at the group he’d been talking to before, who were now standing and watching the exchange like Taako was some sort of rabid animal that had wandered into the ball. Which honestly might as well had been the case.

“That’s not really something we talk about in polite company dear,” he said, and Taako sighed, rolling his eyes. Right, rich people couldn’t actually talk about how much they spent on stuff.

“Whatever, doesn’t matter.  _ Whatever _ you paid for that is too much, they’re fucking scamming you,” he said, getting a look of confusion from Kravitz.

“What do you mean?” he asked, and Taako bit another one in half, showing off the inside to Kravitz as he spoke.

“That sort of brownie inside here? That’s box stuff, so if you were paying for from scratch you got cheated. They just added some heavy cream and butter to the mix, it’s an easy trick to get it to taste nearly from scratch. Also, the truffle coating is an imitation, so there’s that,” he explained. Kravitz didn’t say anything for a moment, processing as that as Taako popped the other half of the dessert in his mouth. “Like give em credit where credit is due, still tastes fine, but they’re charging you for some quality that just ain’t there,” he finished.

“It’s incredible that you’re able to tell all of that from taste alone,” Kravitz said, and he actually sounded impressed. So far he’d seemed like a surprisingly chill dude, which was why Taako had decided to go ahead and tell him the truth. That he was just some nobody cook off the streets, and it seemed like that was the right move. He certainly didn’t seem to think less of him from the discovering at least, in fact it was kind of the opposite. He almost seemed to respect it.

“It is, do you cook Taako?” one of the people Kravitz had been talking to had managed to regain their senses at this point and asked.

“Yeah, what can I say? Good food is my passion,” he said, and Kravitz smiled at that. 

“In that case perhaps next year you could do us the honors of personally overseeing the food for the gala,” he said, and Taako froze at that.

“Wait, really? Like  _ really _ really?” he pressed, because he knew they were doing a whole bit with the engagement so it was hard to tell when an offer was real or not. If he was being serious though Taako was  _ not _ going to pass this up.

“Of course, I have no doubt you’ll do an amazing job,” he said, and Taako could feel his whole face light up at that. All the bullshit from tonight would be worth it if he actually got to do this.

“Oh hell yeah! You best believe I’m going to hold you to this. Fuck I could kiss you,” he said, and he didn’t  _ mean _ to say that last part, but the flustered look on Kravitz’s face was still very nice.

“You’re free to, if you would like,” Kravitz said, and it took a second for Taako to realize what he meant by that. Right. Kissing was a pretty regular thing that people who were engaged tended to do.

Instead of responding Taako leaned forward. Kravitz didn’t try to stop him or find some way out of the situation, so he closed the gap between them. It was still a simple, quick kiss. They were about as in public as they could get at this point after all, and Kravitz was probably only letting it happen because it made the act more believable. Despite that though the prince wasn’t taken by surprise this time, actually kissing back. Which, yeah okay, Taako wouldn’t kick him out of bed for waking up on a Sunday morning. 

Of course, it took every ounce of restraint Taako had not to slap him away when he saw the Queen approaching them. He guessed it still must’ve shown on his face, Kravitz looking very concerned for a moment before he looked over to where Taako was staring and saw her. Taako was glad he wasn’t the only one who felt the urge to jump apart like two middle schoolers caught behind the bleachers. Kravitz quickly took a step back, trying his best to put on an air of dignity again. Taako wasn’t sure how effective it was, but from where he was standing he would guess not all that much.

“Good evening your majesty,” Kravitz said, and this time when he bowed Taako had enough of a brain about him to follow along.

“Hello dear, it’s good to see you enjoying yourself,” he said, and Taako had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from snickering at the way Kravitz coughed at that. That didn’t last very long though, her attention turning towards him. “I was wondering if I could steal your fiance for a moment?” she asked, and Taako raised an eyebrow at that.

“Who, me?” he asked, which was probably a dumb question.

“Yes, unless he has some other fiance I don’t know about,” she said. It sounded like a casual joke but considering this was  _ definitely  _ the first she’d heard about their engagement… yeah there was no way that wasn’t at least a little bitter.

“Nope, uh, just the one. Unless we’re both in for a surprise,” he said, and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“You’re not. I promise,” he said, before taking a breath and turning back towards the Queen. “Of course you may see Taako, but um, if something’s wrong we can step out for a moment and-” he started, but the Queen shook her head, and Taako was pretty sure the smile she gave him was supposed to be reassuring.

“I assure you everything’s fine dear. Please handle the gala for me for a moment, we’ll talk afterwards,” she said, and Kravitz nodded. With that she turned back towards Taako, giving him a warm smile. “Shall we?” she asked, and he quickly nodded.

“Of course,” he said, following along when she started to walk away, because what fucking else was he supposed to do?

The Queen led them out of the ballroom and further into the palace. As they left Taako actually saw the guard that had set all of this into motion. If he’d been trying to call their bluff he wondered how he felt when they kept leaning into it. Either way he made a face at the dude as he followed along with the Queen right back into the parts of the palace he ‘wasn’t allowed to be in.’

The Queen didn’t say anything for a bit as they walked, and when she finally did they were a pretty far distance from the rest of the party. Taako would have expected some guards around or  _ something,  _ but apparently the Queen was confident to go off on her own with a complete stranger. That or he just couldn’t see the guards.

“I’ve been watching you and my son tonight,” she said, no emotion in her voice giving away how she actually felt about that. Looking over at her didn’t give any other hints, although it was pretty obvious where the prince got his good looks from.

“Oh, uh, have you?” he asked, nerves leaking through more than he would have liked. Maybe that was a good thing though, in case she wasn’t like her son and didn’t appreciate overconfident asshole as his main defining character trait.

“Yes, and I hope you’ll forgive me if I am making too many assumptions, but I think I have some idea of what is happening here,” she said, and okay that made sense. Taako figured that the only reason she would want to talk to him alone would be to get the rundown on what was actually happening.

“Yeah that’s fair,” he said, and Taako figured he should try to explain. Kravitz had said they would after the party but if the Queen was asking now then why not. “Okay so to be perfectly honest your majesty, that whole like, announcement? That wasn’t supposed to happen, we’d just been talking and like,  _ I _ forgot the guard was even there! It wasn’t-” he tried, and the queen nodded, a small amused smile on her face now as she held up a hand for him to pause.

“It’s alright, I had assumed as such. Taking everyone off guard like this is not typical of my son,” she said, and Taako actually let out a sigh of relief at that. “Despite that, I am glad that it happened,” she continued. That caused him to pause, trying not to look too surprised.

“You are?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Yes. As I said, I’ve been watching you both tonight. It’s rare to see my son open up to someone so much, rarer still to see him enjoying himself and laughing at one of these parties,” she said, and Taako could feel his face heating up some at that. He’d assumed the prince was always like this.

“Oh. That’s- that’s cool,” he said, actually getting the Queen to smile again before sighing.

“I understand the pressures he feels from his position perhaps more than anyone, as I have lived them as well. So while it saddens me that he did not feel comfortable confiding in me about your relationship, I do understand his hesitation,” she said, and Taako wasn’t able to do anything but let out a nervous laugh at that. So the Queen had been able to tell that something was up, but clearly hadn’t figured out everything.

She still definitely thought they were together.

“And uh, what are your feelings on said relationship?” he asked, no fucking idea what to do in this situation. The best he could figure was try and gather as much information as possible.

“What matters most to me is that my son is happy, and from everything I’ve seen tonight you are able to accomplish that,” she said.

_ “Cool!” _ Taako choked out, coughing a moment before managing to get himself back under control. The Queen stopped, giving him a bemused look and slowly raising an eyebrow.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, and Taako nodded quickly.

“Yeah no, it’s fine. So this is- we’re not doing a shovel talk then?” he asked, and she smiled slightly at that.

“I’ve found them to be a bit unnecessary given my position,” she said.

“That’s- ya know what, that’s fair,” he said.

“Perhaps we should return to the gala now. I’m sure Kravitz would appreciate some company again,” the Queen suggested, and it felt a lot like she was taking mercy on him and letting this whole thing drop for now. Taako nodded, relieved for the out.

“Sounds great,” he said, following along as she started to lead them back through the castle and to the ballroom again. As they walked Taako took the quiet moment to process the situation as it was.

The Queen actually believed that him and the prince were a couple. Even more than that, Taako was pretty damn sure that she’d just given him her blessing.

Somehow, it felt like this whole thing just got even more complicated. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah I think I'm gonna aim for updating this fic on tuesdays from now on. I was gonna try and have it be about seven chapters but I can already tell it's gonna go longer than that. How long we'll just have to wait and see how dumb these boys can be. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	4. Nothing As Planned

Kravitz was trying not to feel too nervous as he waited for his mother to finish speaking with Taako. He wasn’t actually doing all that well, so the most he could manage was not showing how nervous he was to everyone  _ else _ at the ball. He would have liked to get his mind off of the whole thing for a moment, but it was pretty impossible when his ‘engagement’ was the only thing anyone wanted to talk about.

He could understand why, just like he could understand why his mother would want to talk to Taako alone. None of that actually helped, and he wondered if she’d managed to get the truth out of Taako by now. If she had he doubted she would punish him before Kravitz could explain his side of it, but he was still worried.

He supposed there wasn’t much reason for him to be. After all, he did not actually know Taako. They’d spent a few hours together at this point, and while he had proven to be just as…  _ interesting _ as Kravitz had first suspected him to be, he told himself there was no real connection there. It was all just to assure that no one got suspicious. It would look better if he appeared like a lovestruck fool who’d gotten in over his head before maturely ending the engagement, rather than a complete lie to drum up attention.

Still, he supposed he would feel a bit bad if Taako got in trouble for this. Sure, he had already been breaking the rules by sneaking into the palace in the first place. Kravitz honestly couldn’t blame him for that when it had been so easy to accomplish though. If Kravitz hadn’t played along with his outrageous lie and simply let Leon kick him out then the whole thing wouldn’t have escalated as far as it did.

Kravitz was relieved when he saw Taako and his mother heading back into the ballroom. He excused himself a little more quickly than was polite from the current conversation he was spacing out for in order to go join them. An amused smile formed on his mother’s face as soon as she caught sight of him rushing over to them, and he swore he saw some relief in Taako’s expression as well.

“So, um, how is everything?” Kravitz asked as he came to a stop.

“Everything is fine dear, how has the party been in our absence?” his mom asked, and a little to his surprise Taako came over and linked their arms to take his place at his side again. He supposed that made sense though, they still needed to play along while in front of everyone else at least.

“Oh you know, the usual,” he said with a shrug, because it had honestly been a bit difficult to focus. He wasn’t going to admit that out loud if he could help it though.

“So boring as all get out?” Taako asked, and he sounded casual enough. Teasing. He seemed to have a decent poker face but Kravitz supposed he wouldn’t be quiet so calm if his mother had threatened to throw him in the stockade or anything like that. So this was probably a good sign.

“I never said that,” Kravitz lied, mostly because he was sure other people around them were listening in. He didn’t want to add offending even more people onto his list of fuck ups tonight. His mother smiled and he could tell that she knew he wasn’t telling the truth.

“I'll let you get back to it though," she said, and when Kravitz tried to say something else she stopped him. "We’ll talk in the morning,” she assured, and Kravitz nodded at that. Once she was a decent enough distance away he started leading Taako again, trying to look casual as they walked.

“Is everything alright?” he whispered, and thankfully Taako nodded.

“Yeah uh, definitely an update, but nothing that can’t wait until after this lovely gala,” he assured. Kravitz let out a sigh of relief, and he guessed there wasn’t much else to do but enjoy the rest of the night. These events usually felt like they dragged on for hours, and this one did but it definitely wasn’t for the usual reasons. He’d been right on the money about Taako making everything more interesting. He was supposed to be talking to foreign dignitaries but instead he found himself listening to Taako excitedly explain the process behind how they made a bunch of the different little fancy desserts.

Kravitz didn’t think he was into cooking, but he found it all much more interesting than the conversations he usually ended up having at these things. He might have just had a little too much to drink though, and Taako ended up being fascinating to watch when he was passionate about something. He talked with his hands a lot, big, exaggerated gestures that drew all attention to him. 

It was getting late, already a bit past midnight when his ‘fiance’ started to yawn. Kravitz hadn’t realized how much Taako started leaning against him until he tugged at his arm, pulling his attention away from the nobleman Kravitz had been pretending to listen to drone on about something or another.

“Hey Krav? I know you’re the prince and all but are you like, obligated to stay the whole time? How late is this shindig even supposed to last?” he asked, which were all fair questions.

“Are you getting tired darling?” he asked, and it was going to take him a minute to get used to using the pet names. Or well, hopefully it wouldn’t. Hopefully they wouldn’t have to get used to them.

“Yeah,” Taako said with another stifled yawn, giving him a big doe eyed look afterwards that shouldn’t even be legal. “Also wanted to talk to you about some stuff before we crashed,” he added, which right. Kravitz nodded before turning towards the nobleman with a polite smile.

“I’m sorry, I think we’re going to retire for the evening,” he said, and they gave a polite goodbye. Normally Kravitz would try to stick it out for the whole party, even if he usually spent a lot more time hiding in the garden and such than he had this one. He felt like this was a pretty equal trade, ending early but being so much more visible than usual. When he nodded at his mother as they headed towards the interior of the palace she smiled and nodded back. Once they were farther into the castle and away from the guests and guards Taako actually started to perk back up, and it took Kravitz a few moments to realize that some of his exhaustion had been an act.

“So, prince charming, you got someone private we can, ya know,  _ talk?” _ Taako asked, actually winking when he said ‘talk.' He was still hanging onto Kravitz’s arm, which was just wholly unnecessary at this point. 

“My chambers should be fine,” he said, and Taako smirked at that.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure they’re more than fine,” he said, and Kravitz huffed, trying to will the heat away from his face and not feeling very successful.

“To  _ talk _ Taako, we’re just going to talk,” he insisted, and Taako nodded quickly at that.

“Uhuh, for sure, for sure!” he said, not sounding believable in the slightest.

“How much wine did you drink tonight?” he asked, starting to get worried that they would have to put off any serious discussions until the morning. Taako shrugged, not looking too bothered by the question.

“Was I supposed to keep count?” he asked back, and Kravitz let out a pained grown at that. In response Taako snorted, patting his shoulder sympathetically. “I’m just fucking with you my dude, I’m good. You can’t blame a dude for having a little fun at being taken back to the prince’s  _ personal chambers,” _ he said.

“I suppose,” Kravitz sighed, because he guessed he did have a bit of a point. He didn’t have to  _ like _ that point, but it was still there.

It didn’t take too long to get to his room, and as soon as they were inside and Kravitz shut the door behind them Taako let go of his arm. He figured it was because there was no one else here to have to keep up an act for, but instead of getting into a discussion Taako was immediately running about the room, inspecting every little thing he could.

“Um, Taako?” he asked after a moment of watching him in amusement. Taako paused, letting go of the fabric from the canopy around his bed to turn back towards him.

“Sorry, uh, swanky room you got here,” he said, and Kravitz snorted at that.

“Thank you. I’m quite partial to it,” he said. Taako nodded, moving to sit down on his bed. Once he actually sat though he immediately collapsed down into it, pulling some blankets around him for good measure.

“Holy shit. I know what I was saying before but if it means I get the bed then I’m starting to come around on the whole marriage thing. If we get married can I win the bed in the divorce?” he said, and Kravitz sputtered a bit at that.

“Taako!” he said, grabbing a chair and pulling it closer to the bed to sit down. He could have sat on the bed with Taako, but this was better. More polite. Taako could joke but it would be irresponsible for them to get in bed together, even if they were just talking.

“I’m kidding! Mostly, fuck this is a good bed,” he said, and Kravitz was a little worried he was actually going to fall asleep. He seemed to have regained some energy a few moments before but he looked so comfortable now.

“If we could talk about that update you said you had? After speaking to my mother?” he asked. Taako nodded, thankfully pushing himself back up into a seated position. He still had most of Kravitz’s blankets wrapped around him, the sight honestly kind of adorable.

“Right, right sorry. So we got some good news and some bad news on this front, which do you want first?” he asked.

“Bad news,” he said, not overthinking it. The bad news was sure to be the more important thing to know, and it would be nice to have something to possibly lift him up after whatever it was.

“Okay so bad news, your mom uh, really believed the ruse? And I think she thinks the reason we didn’t tell her is cause you’re ya know, a prince and I’m a fucking nobody,” Taako explained. Kravitz groaned, throwing his head back slightly. He supposed it made sense, but Kravitz wasn’t looking forward to explaining everything to his mother.

“Did she actually say something like that to you?” he asked, because it didn’t sound like his mother but today had already been so strange he wasn’t willing to rule anything out at this point. He was relieved when Taako shook his head, at least that wasn’t another thing he had to deal with.

“Nah, just kinda what I picked up. She was mostly talking about how she gets the pressures you’re under as a prince and could understand why you would be worried to bring up  _ our relationship,” _ he said, actually using finger quotes around ‘our relationship.’

“So the good news then?” he asked, and Taako smiled nervously at that.

“Good news, she’s supportive?” he said, although it came out as a question. Kravitz sat forward at that, raising his eyebrows.

“She’s what?” he asked, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah, a lot of talk about how she was glad that I’m bringing you out of your shell. Good to see you enjoying yourself, how she just wants to see you happy and all that sorta stuff,” he said. Kravitz groaned, covering his face with his hands as he threw his head back.

“That’s not good news Taako, that’s worse! You get how that’s worse, right?” he asked, and when he looked at him he shook his head.

“Nooot really? I don’t really know how like, moms work. Never had one,” he said, and Kravitz sighed heavily.

“Your father then?” he asked, because even if he didn’t have a mom he had to have someone who he could relate to like this. To his surprise Taako shook his head. “Whatever guardian you had then,” he tried, and Kravitz’s frustration with the situation started to take a backseat when Taako continued to look at him blankly.

“I’ve mentioned how I’m just off the streets before, remember?” he said, and Kravitz winced slightly as the realization hit him.

“Oh, oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you meant- I’m sorry,” he apologized, but Taako waved the concern away like it didn’t mean anything to him.

“It’s not a big deal. What do you mean your mom liking me is a bad thing?” he pressed, and right, he should probably explain that.

“It’s bad because if she likes you and- and actually  _ approves _ of this then it’s going to be even harder to explain everything and try to get her to fix it,” he said, and Taako raised an eyebrow at that.

“What, you think she’s gonna refuse? Cause like I don’t know, she said she was glad it made you  _ happy, _ so like if you explain that it doesn’t I doubt she’s gonna want me for my  _ big political connections. _ I’m pretty sure I pissed off like six different countries tonight. That’s a record,” he said, and Kravitz was very tempted to ask how many countries he’d managed to piss off in one night before this, but forced himself to stick to the subject at hand.

“No, no it’s nothing like that,” he said, sighing and rubbing at his temples as he tried to find the right words to explain himself. “It’s just that if she thinks I’m happy with this then if I explain to her that it’s all fake she’s going to be very…  _ disappointed,” _ he said. Taako cocked his head to the side, a skeptical look on his face.

“Disappointed?” he asked, and Kravitz nodded.

“Yes, it’s- who’s someone important to you? It doesn’t have to be a parent or anything. Someone you care about with all your heart,” he asked, and Taako’s answer came faster than he expected.

“My sister,” he said. Kravitz blinked in surprise at that, but it made sense that he hadn’t mentioned any of the family he did have until now. Any personal detail he gave during the ball was subject to be torn apart and dissected by the media.

“Okay so, imagine you heard some really great news about your sister. Something you know would make her happy and you’re so excited and relieved even if you were kinda taken off guard at first. Then,  _ just _ when you have enough time to process that it’s real, maybe a night or so to see for yourself how this new thing is already improving her life she comes and tells you that it was all fake, and would really appreciate it if you helped her explain to everyone  _ else _ that it’s not actually happening too,” he said. Taako sat there in silence for a moment, and even though he didn’t say anything Kravitz could see the realization on his face.

_ “Oh,” _ he said finally.

“Get it now?” he asked, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah alright, that definitely makes it all a little muddy,” he said, and Kravitz sat for a moment, trying to think of what they could do to fix this. He was distracted with Taako started to smile though, the grin feeling like one that could eat Kravitz alive. “Already improving your life, huh?” he asked. Kravitz started sputtering, wanting to hide his face but not having anything to hide it in. When Taako started laughing he reached onto the bed, grabbing the first pillow he could and tossing it at his head.

“I don’t like parties! I don’t like them, alright? It’s a bunch of assholes all angling to get something from you and you have to talk to all of them without pissing anyone off and it’s exhausting!” he shouted, Taako just continuing to laugh. Kravitz huffed, crossing his arms and looking away. “I did not have to worry so much about everyone else because they were all so focused on the engagement thing. So, by definition, it was an improvement,” he explained, and even though Taako nodded it didn’t look like he believed him very much.

“Yeah whatever you say Charming,” he said, and Kravitz couldn’t do anything but shake his head at that.

“Please don’t start calling me that,” he said, although it didn’t look like Taako cared all that much.

“Too late,” he said, confirming Kravitz’s suspicions. His teasing smile faded some as he seemed to think over their current predicament. “You got any better idea of how to handle this then? Like, if you don’t want to dump it all on your mom at once,” he asked, which was a good question.

“I don’t know,” he sighed, trying to think over their options. “Fake break up?” he suggested hesitantly, and was a little relieved when Taako made a face at that.

“That sounds like it could go bad fast,” he said with a grimace. “They’ll try to paint one of us as the asshole but I don’t exactly have the preexisting reputation you got,” he added, and Kravitz nodded quickly at that.

“No, that’s a fair point,” he agreed. “I’d hate for this to follow you in any sort of damaging way.”

“I could fake my death,” Taako suggested next, Kravitz giving him a surprised look and immediately shaking his head.

“What? No! That’s a terrible idea,” he said, and Taako shrugged casually.

“Hey, just throwing it out there,” he said. Kravitz sighed, rubbing at his temples. Glancing at the clock hanging in his room, it was well past 1am at this point, and he could feel it. There was sure to be a few guests still lingering about, but most sane individuals had gone to retire for the evening. He could feel the wear from the day pulling at him and all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and not think about things for a bit.

“We’re not going to think of a solution now, it’s too late. We should rest and then regroup in the morning,” he said, relieved when Taako nodded in agreement. The man yawned instead of actually answering, and when Kravitz looked at him still wrapped up in his blankets that brought up another issue. “I take it you will be staying here tonight?” he asked. Taako hesitated at the question, taking a look around him.

“Oh yeah, I guess so. It’d be bad if some of the paparazzi caught sight of me sneaking out and like, tried to follow me back home,” he said, which was a fair point. It would be best for Taako to stay at the palace until they had this whole thing cleared up. “Oh shit!” Taako said suddenly, starting to untangle himself from the blankets.

“What? What’s the matter?” he asked, watching as Taako fumbled at his pockets until he pulled out a stone of farspeech.

“I almost forgot! Lup is gonna kill me, I promised I’d give her a heads up if I wasn’t heading home tonight,” he said. Kravitz cocked his head to the side in confusion at that.

“Lup?” he asked, and Taako nodded.

“My sister,” he explained, which made much more sense. “I need to let her know what’s up,” he added.

“Everything?” Kravitz asked, not sure how good of an idea it was to lay out their entire ruse to someone. He’d never met Taako’s sister, maybe she was trustworthy, but he had no way of knowing. Taako seemed to think the question over before shaking his head.

“Nah, that’s not as funny,” he said, and before Kravitz could ask what he meant by that Taako connected the stone’s frequency. Immediately it started to glow a soft red, like whoever had the other stone had been sitting and waiting for the call.

“Is everything okay? I didn’t think you’d stay so late,” a voice asked, and it must’ve been Taako’s sister. He could hear the similarity in their voices, and some part of Taako that Kravitz hadn’t even noticed was tense seemed to relax hearing her.

“Everything’s  _ fine _ Lulu, you worry too much,” he said. Considering how Taako’s night had gone Kravitz could guess that she probably worried just the right amount. “Anyway, don’t wait up for me, I’m staying at the palace tonight. Maybe for the next couple nights? Dunno, we’re still working out the details,” he added.

“Oh god. Did you get arrested? Taako I was joking! I don’t actually have bail for you!” Lup shouted, and Taako immediately looked offended.

“I didn’t get arrested! I told you everything’s fine. You can probably read all about it in the morning paper,” Taako said, and it came out as a joke. Kravitz wondered if he knew how much it really wasn’t, there was no way this wasn’t making the news. On the other end of the line he could hear Taako’s sister scoff.

“What? Did you  _ actually _ go and seduce the prince?” she asked, and it also sounded like a joke but Kravitz’s head whipped towards Taako anyway.

“Wait, was this really a plan? I thought that was all bluff,” he asked, and Taako’s face darkened nicely at that.

“No! That’s not- we were just fucking around and joking! I didn’t even think I’d actually get to see you tonight, let alone talk to you,” Taako insisted, and it sounded honest enough. Kravitz certainly couldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind having a plan like this and actually having it work out.

“Taako. Who was that?” Lup asked, her voice monotone and tight. Taako was downright beaming now, his smile looking a little maniacal even as he held the stone up a little higher so that Kravitz could more easily speak into it.

“Lup, say hi to Prince Kravitz. Krav, say hi to my sister,” he said, sounding smug as anything. Kravitz sighed, and he’d never had siblings but he could understand this game well enough to play along.

“Good evening Miss Lup, I promise that Taako isn’t in any sort of legal trouble. He is, ah, quite the character though, I will admit,” he said, which barely covered it if he was being honest. There was a long moment where Taako’s sister didn’t say anything, just the sound of her sputtering softly.

“I’ll choose to take that as a compliment,” Taako said and that seemed to be enough to get Lup to find her words again.

“You fucking liar, who is that really? Taako, the fuck did you do?” Lup asked, and considering everything Kravitz couldn’t blame her for not believing them. It didn’t seem to bother Taako any, the man still grinning widely as he pulled the stone back over to him to speak into it.

“You’ll hear all about it in the morning, just keep an eye on the news,” he insisted.

“Taako, that doesn’t-” Lup tried to insist, but Taako cut her off.

“Alright later, tell Barold good night for me.”

“Taako!” Lup shouted, but before she could say anything else Taako cut off the frequency.

“Barold?” Kravitz asked after a moment. Taako nodded, not seeming bothered by the question.

“My sister’s boyfriend,” he explained, which made sense. 

“Is that going to come back to bite you?” Kravitz asked as Taako put the stone of farspeech back into his pocket. The man shrugged, honestly not seeming to care all that much.

“Oh she’s gonna kill me, but it’ll be worth it. Unrelated, how fire proof are your guards?” Taako asked. Kravitz wasn’t sure he fully believed that was unrelated and honestly he was a little worried. Definitely more worried than Taako seemed to be.

“About as fire proof as most people,” he said tentatively. Taking a deep breath, Kravitz stood up from the chair, trying to get control of the situation back. “In any case, it’s getting late and we should both sleep. We can discuss anything else in the morning,” he said. Taako nodded at that, yawning loudly before looking around himself, and then back up at Kravitz who was now just standing besides the bed.

“So, gonna be a shock, but I didn’t actually bring a change of clothes. I could sleep in this but it’s the nicest thing I own and I don’t really  _ want _ to,” he said, and Kravitz nodded quickly. It made sense.

“No of course, I can provide something more suitable,” he said, getting up and heading over to his wardrobe. Taako was a bit shorter and more slight than he was, but he supposed that didn’t matter too much for sleep clothes. Trying desperately not to overthink it (not to imagine what this incredibly handsome man would look like wearing his clothes in bed) he grabbed a simple white night shirt and shorts. “There’s an attached bathroom right through there if you would wish to change,” he added as he handed the clothes over.

“Appreciate it my dude,” Taako said with a wink, heading over to the bathroom. Kravitz briefly considered getting changed as well, but he figured he could do that once they actually decided where Taako could sleep. There were plenty of spare rooms, but Kravitz wasn’t sure how it would look if he forced his ‘fiance’ to sleep in another room. Especially when they had clearly gone to retire together and spent quite a bit of time alone already. Maybe no one would notice that though. Maybe it would look worse if he had Taako sleep in his room, after all they weren’t actually  _ married _ yet. He might be overthinking this whole thing.

Kravitz was distracted from his thoughts when Taako came back into the room. It was rather hard for him to think anything for a few seconds longer than it should have, but he didn’t think that was on him.

It was not fair in the slightest that Taako had somehow managed to get even more beautiful. He’d taken his hair down from its braid, and the night shirt was baggy on him like he figured it would be, looking a bit more like a night gown. 

He must’ve been staring for long enough that Taako noticed, the man looking flustered for the briefest moment before grinning.

“Like what you see?” he asked, and Kravitz finally had enough brain power to look away, coughing into his hand as he tried to find some way to come back from that.

“I don’t see anything wrong with admiring my new fiance,” he said, because he could play at this game too. That at least that got Taako to look flustered again before he shrugged it off casually.

“I suppose not,” he said, and before Kravitz could ask what they were going to do about the sleeping situation Taako went and sat back down on his bed. When he turned to look back at Kravitz, he raised an eyebrow as he looked him over.

“So, you planning on sleeping in a suit or what?” he asked.

“I thought we might get you set up in one of the guest rooms?” Kravitz tried. Taako frowned at that, although he was fairly sure it was more confused than disappointed or anything like that.

“Won’t that just be suspicious? I mean, we kinda implied we were gonna, ya know,” Taako said, giving a heavily exaggerated wink.

“We implied no such thing!” Kravitz argued, not that Taako seemed to care all that much.

“Whatever. Come on, your bed is huge, you won’t even notice I’m here,” he argued, and Kravitz sighed.

“I promise the guest beds are just as comfortable,” he said, and Taako reluctantly stood up.

“Fine, but uh, it won’t be far right? I’m tired as shit,” he said. Kravitz let out a small sigh of relief as he shook his head.

“It’s just down the hall,” he said, starting to lead Taako to the closest guest room. It was smaller than his room, but still large and opulent, with a small attached bath and balcony overlooking the garden.

“Yeah alright, I can work with this,” Taako said, and Kravitz snorted at that.

“In that case I’ll leave you to it then,” he said, pausing at the door. This whole night had been so strange, and he was hoping it would end with the ball, but that didn’t seem to be the case. “Goodnight Taako.”

“Night Krav,” Taako said, still so casual. All Kravitz could do was nod, turning and heading back too his room. Once he was inside he collapsed down onto his own bed, taking a moment to just breathe and process the night.

Absolutely nothing tonight had gone as he had planned.

And Kravitz was fairly sure he had a crush on his fiance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kravitz did not think about the downsides to pretending you're engaged to someone when you have a glaringly obvious crush on that person, like the fact that people will actually believe you. whoops, oh well. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	5. A Plan

Taako went and collapsed down on the bed in the guest room that Prince Kravitz led him to. He was right, it was still comfortable as fuck, if not  _ quite _ as big as the prince's bed. The room wasn’t that far either, and honestly there was some relief in having a moment alone. Rolling onto his back, the ceiling was high up above him, making the room appear even larger.

The prince was right, they could talk about everything in the morning. Taako was definitely too exhausted to think of any good ideas, and it seemed like Kravitz was on the same page there. Curling up in bed, he tried to get some sleep.

It was quiet in the room. Taako thought that would help him knock out but instead he ended up fixating on it, and he was pretty sure that if he wasn’t so fucking exhausted he could have stayed up all night trying to listen for any sound in this huge empty castle. As it was his sleep felt more fitful than anything. It did not seem like a very long time at all when Taako found himself rolling awake for the tenth time to find light from sunrise starting to shine in through the windows.

Letting out a groan, Taako grabbed one of the many pillows and covered his head as much as possible to get back to sleep. It didn’t end up working all that well, and he laid there for about another hour or so before he heard a knock on the door.

“Yeah? Come in,” Taako called, sitting up in bed. There was a slight hesitation before the door creaked open and he could see Kravitz peak in. Taako hadn’t actually bothered to check how presentable he was for the day. Judging from the quick flustered look on the prince's face he probably could use some fixing up.

“Are you sure? I can come back at another time if you wish,” Kravitz asked. Taako waved away the concern, setting up a couple of the pillows so that he could lean back while still sitting up.

“Nah, you’re good. I’m not about to go around pretending I have dignity,” he joked. Kravitz nodded hesitantly, heading into the room and closing the door behind him.

“Did you sleep well?” Kravitz asked, just sort of standing off in the middle of the room awkwardly like he was afraid of getting too close to Taako. It was probably supposed to be some casual small talk but Taako shrugged, not about to lie.

“Eh, kinda off and on if I’m being honest,” he said, and Kravitz frowned a little at that.

“Oh? What there something inadequate with your lodgings or…” he trailed off, and Taako quickly shook his head. The bed and room certainly weren’t the issue, he wasn’t sure they could get much higher quality than this.

“Nah dog, just quiet is all. Not used to it, no biggie,” he said, and Kravitz nodded hesitantly at that.

“Well, if you can think of anything we can do to make your stay more comfortable feel free to let us know,” he said, and Taako grinned at that.

“That I can certainly do,” he said, earning a small chuckle from Kravitz. Leaning forward some, he figured that the prince wasn’t just here to shoot the shit. “So, we got a game plan for today, or what? Cause I’m sure word's spread pretty damn wide by this point and I don’t really have any fresh ideas on how to damage control this one,” he said. Kravitz sighed, starting to pace around the room.

“I’m a bit at a loss as well. Our best bet is to try and call it off quietly, but there’s no way to do that so soon after the initial announcement,” he said, which was fair. Any new news that came out at this point would be eaten alive. Taako was quiet for a moment as he thought it over.

“We might be in a bit of a waiting game,” he said. Kravitz paused his pacing, turning back towards him with a questioning look, so Taako continued. “Basically we gotta wait out the news cycle. Let em get all the buzz out of their system now, and not give them anything new so that they eventually wear themselves out on the topic. Once it’s faded we can break it off quietly, like you said. It’ll still make headlines but if it’s after everyone stopped giving a shit it shouldn’t be as bad.”

“That… might actually work. What about my mother though?” he asked, which was a fair question. Still, Taako didn’t think that had to be too complicated either.

“I mean, we probably have to keep up the ruse in front of her too. We can just tell her that like, after trying out the whole living together thing we think we’re better as friends? I don’t feel suited to the kind of royal lifestyle and decision making that would come with being married to the king, that sort of stuff. Let it all down easy,” he said, Kravitz nodding along more forcefully at that.

“Yes, okay yes this could work. We were just…  _ overeager  _ is all. After taking some time to think it over like adults we decide it’s not for us and everyone can go our separate ways,” he said, which sounded good enough to Taako. “How long do you imagine we will have to pretend for the news to calm down enough?” he asked, which was a harder question.

“Uh, this is pretty big news. It depends on how much shit goes down. Like, if we get in some sort of massive war tomorrow maybe only a week? But if things are sort of chill as usual a month? Maybe two?” he guessed. Kravitz looked decidedly less confident at that thought.

_ “Two months?” _ he asked, and Taako huffed all mock offended.

“Well, don’t act so excited now, I know having me around is a treat but let’s not go overboard,” he grumbled. Immediately Kravitz winced, looking about ready to bite off his own tongue.

“No, that’s not- I didn’t mean it like that!” he quickly assured. Taako didn’t look very convinced at that, so he continued. “I just- I haven’t had many  _ real _ relationships that lasted that long before. I would hate to keep you away from your  _ life _ for such a long time as well,” he said, and he sounded genuine enough, so Taako shrugged.

“I’ll manage. It’s my own fault we’re in this mess in the first place,” he said, and reluctantly Kravitz nodded.

“If you’re comfortable with that then alright. I’m inclined to agree that waiting it out and making the decision appear like a reasonable agreement on both of our ends is the best course of action,” he said. It definitely sounded good enough for Taako.

“Hell yeah! Look at us actually making a reasonable plan to fix this clusterfuck,” he said, earning a chuckle from the prince.

“If that is all settled then, I had  _ officially _ came here to invite you down to the dining hall for breakfast, if you are up to it,” Kravitz said. Taako grinned, climbing out of bed and stretching his arms up over his head until his back cracked satisfyingly.

“Oh hell yeah, I’m starving,” he said, and when he looked back at Kravitz the prince was not so subtly staring at him again. It didn’t take Taako too long to realize why, glancing back down at himself and realizing he was still in a thin nightshirt and shorts. Kravitz meanwhile was fully dressed, his suit still nice and crisp, if not quite as ethereal as the shimmering black one he’d been wearing yesterday. “Shit, right, small issue,” he said, Kravitz’s eyes quickly focusing back on his face.

“Issue?” he asked, and well it certainly did good things for the self-esteem to see how easily he was able to distract actual goddamn royalty with his looks. Without even trying, he was pretty sure his hair was a mess from tossing and turning all night.

“Yeah, I don’t have any clothes,” he said.  Kravitz still looked confused for a few seconds, but Taako could see the moment it clicked in the prince’s brain.

“Oh of course, I’m sorry, afraid I’m still waking up I suppose. I’ll have someone deliver an assortment of outfits for you to choose from while you’re staying here right away and make sure someone will be available to escort you to breakfast,” he said, which sounded good enough to Taako.

“Sounds like a plan,” he said, and Kravitz nodded. He just stood there for a bit, not making any move to leave. “I mean, unless you  _ want _ me to walk around wearing nothing but your pajamas and the suit I got for the ball. That works too,” he added, the prince quickly shaking his head.

“No, no that’s not- that’s definitely not a good idea. I’ll go see to it you have some clothes now,” he said, this time actually backing out of the room. Taako snorted in amusement but didn’t actually make any move to tease him more than he already had, instead collapsing back down on the bed once he was alone again.

He wondered if Lup had heard the news yet. He was tempted to try and contact her on the stone to check, but he didn’t want to ruin it if she hadn’t. Plus he could only imagine the fit she would have once she heard. He wasn’t too bothered by putting that off for as long as possible.

It didn’t take too long before someone came knocking at his door, maybe only about ten minutes if Taako had to guess. When he opened the door where was a servant waiting on the other side, holding several boxes of what he could only presume were clothes. They didn’t bother waiting for Taako to invite them in, seeming to have enough sense to walk in when he stepped aside.

“Prince Kravitz informed me you were in need of some additions to your wardrobe as you prepare to move into the castle. Now I have a rough estimate of your size but if anything needs tailored say the word and we should be able to make the adjustment right away,” she said, placing the boxes carefully on the long dresser against the wall. Taako followed her, peaking into one of the boxes to get an idea of what he was gonna have to work with her.

“If anything’s not to your liking the prince said that he would be sure to schedule in a consultation so that any further additions to your wardrobe could be a bit more personalized,” she added. From the pretty frank business tone she had Taako assumed she was someone who worked in the palace full time, the glamour of dressing royalty having faded some.

It sure as fuck hadn’t faded for Taako though, but he was trying his best not to show that as he ran a hand over the first outfit.

“Yeah, we’ll uh, be sure to get that squared away. Sorry for the short notice, it’s ya know, a long way from New Elfington. Had to travel light,” he said, getting a somewhat amused nod from the tailor in return.

“Of course,” she said, in a way that let Taako know exactly how much she believed that. Taako paused in his inspection of the clothes to turn back towards her.

“Hey uh, you seem pretty sharp, like you have a good understanding of the goings ons of this place. Think I could ask you a question?” he asked. The tailor seemed to think it over for a moment before shrugging.

“I don’t see why not,” she said, which was a bit of a relief.

“Cool, so uh, what would you say is the general opinion of the prince’s new engagement?” he asked, trying to be casual about it and probably failing.

“Well there’s a lot of excitement. A lot of, you could say  _ confusion _ on he whereabouts and legitimacy of the Kingdom of New Elfington,” she said, and Taako couldn’t help laughing nervously at that. He figured that would happen, so he guessed it was good that he was getting that confirmed now.

“More… more of a city-state, ya know?” he said halfheartedly.

“Uhuh,” she said, not seeming to either care or believe him. Apparently satisfied that he’d gotten the delivery she started to head towards the door, leaving him to look through the clothes. Before she actually left though she turned back towards him. “There’s been quite a bit of rumors about why the prince would take someone from such an…  _ unknown _ kingdom. You might want to prepare yourself for that if you plan on having another public appearance anytime soon,” she said, and Taako nodded.

“Right, noted,” he said. He was pretty sure that was the polite way of saying that everyone who knew anything was aware he wasn’t actually somebody, which he’d guessed. At least it seemed like no one in the palace was going to give him shit about it, and they certainly weren’t planning on any other ‘public appearances.' The whole plan was for Taako to be as shut in as possible until the news died down and they could end this quietly.

With nothing else he could do about that, Taako turned his attention to the outfits he’d been brought. He’d only looked at one of them so far, and quickly started going through the rest to figure out what to wear. He’d get to them all eventually, but he figured right now it was best to try and keep up as good of a somewhat first impression as possible.

These clothes were already all much nicer than anything Taako was used to, and even though none of it was quite as formal as what everyone had been wearing last night it was still pretty damn proper. Vests and button up shirts and suit jackets, a few finer blouses and the like thrown in, slacks and some cloaks here and there. The tailor had said that there wasn’t a lot but looking over it now it sure seemed like a lot to him.

He eventually settled on a teal and purple outfit, teal undershirt with a purple vest, a matching cloak and slacks. He made sure to redo his hair before leaving the room as well. Nothing quite as sparkling as last night, but still done up in a neat braid. By the time he declared himself presentable enough to go out he was fucking starving.

Heading out of his room, there was a guard waiting by the door. He wasn’t the asshole guard from the night before, which was a small relief. Even if he wouldn’t mind fucking with the dude some more. Taako guessed this was who Kravitz had said would lead him down to the dining room. That seemed to be the case when the guard nodded at him, bowing the slightest bit as well.

“This way sir,” he said, starting to lead the way. The castle was huge, and it was kind of tempting every time they passed some expensive looking knickknack to try and snatch it up. Taako had left his bag back in his room though, partially because it didn’t match his current outfit as well, and partially because he was kinda in too deep to be trying to steal anything else. He might have to figure out a way to put everything back before anyone noticed, but he’d tackle that problem when he got to it.

When they got to the dining hall the guard stopped at the door, bowing again slightly. Taako nodded back, and when he headed into the room it was hard not to look awed. Honestly, the expressions he had when faced with anything particularly shining probably wasn’t helping to make him look like he fit in here any.

It was a long room though, with an almost equally long table made of a smooth, shining dark wood. There were matching chairs with what looked like pearl inlay, and the floor was that same dark iridescent material as the ballroom had been. Kravitz was sitting near the end of the table, and his head immediately perked up at the sound of Taako entering the room. The flash of nerves and excitement on his face was adorable, as was the way he seemed to just stop a moment to stare at him.

“Sorry for the wait, it’s a lot of work to look this good,” he said, going over and sitting down across from Kravitz.

“Well, you manage to make it look effortless,” he responded, and Taako hoped that if he grinned at that no one would notice how red his face got. It was probably an empty hope, but it was still worth a shot. His smile dipped a little though when he saw there was an empty plate in front of Kravitz.

“You finish eating? You didn’t have to wait ya know,” he said, and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“Oh no, I haven’t gotten anything yet. I was hoping to have breakfast with my fiance, of course,” he said, and this whole thing was just an act but it wasn’t fair that the prince was so  _ good _ at it.

“Well then, let’s get some damn breakfast then,” he said. Kravitz smiled, nodding at one of the servants who then went back to what Taako guessed was the kitchen area. He was gonna  _ have _ to get back there at some point while he was here.

“So, what’s the plan for today?” Taako asked as they waited for the food to arrive. There didn’t seem to be any other guards in the room, although Taako was sure there were some outside the doors.

“I was thinking that we could stand to take it easy today, what with all of the excitement from yesterday,” Kravitz said, which was fair. Taako nodded, and considering he hadn’t slept all that great last night he certainly wasn’t going to complain about that. “I still need to speak with my mother again as well. She might want to see you but if you’re not feeling up to it-” Kravitz started, but Taako quickly shook his head.

“Nah, I’m good. Definitely don’t have anything that would require turning down the queen,” he said, and Kravitz seemed to accept that well enough. With that the server came back, bringing out a few trays of different kinds of eggs and pastries and the like. As soon as they were placed on the table Taako started piling some onto his plate, his stomach protesting his hunger for a while. He didn’t realize how fast he was going until he noticed Kravitz sitting there, watching him with clear amusement.

“What? You knew food is a passion of mine,” he said, and Kravitz quickly shook his head, starting to fill up his own plate now.

“No, please don’t let me stop you. It’s just fun to watch is all,” he said. Taako huffed, but honestly the prince sounded pretty sincere at that.

“Yeah, well glad you’re enjoying the view,” he muttered, not actually slowing down the pace at which he was eating. He was down to hang out here for however long it took for people to stop caring about the prince’s engagement, but he wasn’t going to bother with learning all of the social etiquette rules.

That being said, he was smart enough to know that it probably wasn’t considered polite to start choking in front of the Queen, so he tried to hide that as much as possible when she walked into the room. At least the prince also looked decently startled by her presence, standing up and bowing as she entered. Taako followed along clumsily, still trying to cough discretely into his arm as he did.

“Good morning mother,” Kravitz said, and so far the Queen had seemed pretty chill. She certainly seemed to approve of their whole ‘relationship’ from the conversation they had, and she smiled at them as she walked into the room. That didn’t make Taako  _ that _ much less nervous, but he supposed it was still something.

“Good morning, I was hoping to find the both of you here,” she said, moving to sit down at the head of the table. Taako waited to sit until Kravitz did, because not learning table manners was one thing. He still wasn’t sure how much their ‘engagement’ would protect him if he outright disrespected the Queen in some way. She  _ seemed _ chill yeah, but better safe than throw in jail for the rest of his natural life.

“Did you sleep well?” the Queen asked, and Taako nodded, very slowly starting to eat again. When no one seemed bothered by that he continued.

“Oh yeah, just uh, just perfect. Sorry we didn’t uh, check with you first if that was cool, is… is it cool?” he asked, because as far as he knew Kravitz had never actually asked the Queen if he was allowed to stay here. She seemed amused by the question, smiling slightly as she nodded.

“Of course it is fine, we’re happy to have you. You’re going to be a part of the family,” she said, and Taako shoved a whole muffin in his mouth at that, feeling his face heat up as he nodded and struggled not to choke again. That might not have been his smartest move.

“Yes, about that!” Kravitz cut in quickly, an obvious embarrassed tone to his voice. It drew the Queen’s attention away from Taako though, which seemed to be the purpose of it. Kravitz quickly coughed and got himself back into a somewhat more dignified position as he continued. “I just wanted to apologize for not coming to you about this sooner. I know it must have been um, quite the surprise,” he said.

“It was, you are correct,” she said, pausing to take a drink. “I already explained to your fiance that I understand your trepidation, and he had mentioned that the announcement last night had been… unplanned, is that correct?” she asked. Taako couldn’t blame Kravitz for the immediate way he started nodding at that.

“Definitely, definitely unplanned,” he said. The prince actually looked genuinely upset as he continued, a frown on his face as he stared at the middle of the table, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “I would have wanted to tell you before putting out  _ any _ sort of public announcement. I’m sorry that didn’t happen,” he said, the Queen smiling softly at him.

“It’s alright dear. I’m still so very happy for you,” she said, and it was honestly a nice scene. It was obvious just how much the two cared about each other, even if they were both more on the reserved side. Taako got the impression that this was a rare moment of walls coming down despite all the royalty and having to be proper stuff they both put up with.

He also very much got the feeling that he wasn’t really supposed to be here for it.

Before he could think of some way to either excuse himself or just wait until the moment passed awkwardly and they remembered he was there, a guard came running into the room.

“I’m sorry for intruding your majesty. The palace is under attack!” the guard yelled, and Taako felt his heart stop.

There was no way…

“Attacked? By who?” the Queen asked, standing up quickly from her chair.

“It appears to be a single woman, young adult from what we can tell,” he said, and Taako started to slump in his chair.

“Oh no…” he muttered, only seeming to catch the attention of Kravitz, who was looking over at him in confusion.

“Taako?” he asked, but before he could say anything else the guard continued.

“She seems to be making some sort of claim that we release her brother immediately.”

“Noooo,  _ Lup!”  _ he whined, sinking fully under the table. That clearly got the attention of everyone else, and he wondered if Kravitz had put two and two together yet. He probably had, he seemed like a smart dude.

“I’m sorry, Taako do you know this person?” the Queen asked, and he nodded, pulling himself up enough to peak his head over the table.

“I might not have, strictly speaking, told my sister about our engagement,” he said, and he should have known this would happen. The Queen looked downright stunned for a moment, and there was a split second where it looked like she was trying not to laugh before schooling her face back into a calm and collected authority.

“And you are on good terms with this sister?” the Queen asked, and Taako nodded quickly.

“Oh yeah, she’s the best. When she’s not setting people on fire,” he said, and the Queen nodded at that.

“Then we shall welcome her into the palace openly. There is no reason we cannot assure her that her brother is fine and here of his own free will,” she said, and Taako let out a breath of relief at that. The guard nodded, leaving to hopefully let Lup into the palace before she hurt anyone else.

Kravitz came around to his side of the table, holding out a hand to help Taako up.

“Well, we should probably go greet your sister. Assuage her of any worries,” he said, and Taako nodded. She was absolutely going to kill him on sight, but he knew he could only avoid that fate for so long. Might as well not prolong the suffering.

“I have something that I must attend to first, but I look forward to meeting your family Taako,” the Queen said, excusing herself from the room. With that the two started heading towards the front of the castle, only speaking once they were alone in the hallway.

“Sticking to the plan?” Kravitz asked quietly, and Taako nodded.

“Right. Stick to the plan,” he said, trying to convince himself that this could work.

God, this was going to go up in flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't have much to say on this one other than the boys continue to be dumb and Lup Has Arrived
> 
> as always thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


	6. Some Truth

Kravitz had made what he assumed was a reasonable assumption that Taako had been joking when he talked about his sister trying to burn their guards to the ground. Apparently he shouldn’t have thrown the idea out of hand though. At the moment Kravitz’s only solace was that Taako at least also seemed surprised by the turn of events.

When they reached the entryway where the guards had escorted Taako’s sister it did not seem like anyone was injured. It did appear that a few of the guards had managed to get several weapons off of her though, including something that looked like a crude flamethrower.

Taako’s sister was immediately noticeable, and it was surprising how similar they were in appearance. She was in much more casual clothes than Kravitz had ever seen Taako in though, save for maybe the pajamas he’d lent him. These clothes were obviously more handy than those though, a simple jacket and jeans that had seen some work.

If it hadn’t been obvious before that Taako came from humble origins, it certainly was now.

And sure, they weren’t actually going to get married, but if anyone had a problem with that Kravitz would certainly defend Taako as if they were.

As soon as his sister caught sight of him there was obvious relief in her face, immediately followed by her setting him with one of the more terrifying glares Kravitz had ever seen in his life. When she went to rush up to the two of them a few guards quickly blocked off her path. Considering her apparent entrance Kravitz couldn’t blame them too much for that.

“Taako! What the  _ fuck  _ is going on here? What is this asshole playing at? You better give me my brother back this instant or I swear I will burn this whole damn place to the-” she started shouting, and Taako had mentioned her being the most important person to him but that protectiveness was somewhat terrifying to watch now.

“Lup! Lulu, it’s cool! Everything’s cool, I’m not being held here against my will. Nothing is going on, I swear everything is  _ fine,” _ Taako insisted, stepping in front of Kravitz somewhat. It was hard to tell if he was trying to get closer to his sister or if he was actually trying to protect him somewhat from her wrath.

“Fine? I wake up to news that you’re  _ engaged _ to the prince and you expect me to believe that everything is just hunkydory?” she asked, and Taako smiled nervously at that.

“Yes?” he said, although it definitely came out more as a question than anything. Lup let out a long, slow breath, seeming to take a moment to pull herself back under control.

“Miss Lup,” Kravitz said, hoping he wouldn’t regret speaking up. Being able to navigate difficult social situations was most of the deal of being royalty though, so he might be the best person to handle thing, other than Taako being her brother. “I am sorry for the surprise you must have felt receiving the news like this. We did not mean to cause you any distress, but I assure you that Taako is here of his own free will. I have no intention of making him stay if he does not wish to, and I swear on my life that I will not allow any harm to come to my fiance,” he said, and he could practically feel Lup scrutinizing him.

“Alright then, let me talk to him. Alone,” she demanded, and without hesitating Kravitz nodded, even going so far as to bow slightly.

A part of him really didn’t want to have Taako’s sister hating him, especially since this whole engagement thing was sure to last a while.

“Of course, I have no problem with that, you’re his family,” he said, and he could see Lup’s face actually relax some at that. At his nod the guards seemed to reluctantly step back letting her through. Not wasting any time Lup rushed over to them, grabbing her brother and pulling him into a hug. Taako hugged her back for a moment, and when he drew away Kravitz couldn’t help but notice the nervous look on his face.

“Actually, Lup I think it’s probably best if we talk with Krav there,” he said, and immediately that look of suspicion was back on her face.

“Why can’t we talk alone?” she asked, her voice hard.

“It’s easier if everyone’s there. Just trust me on this Lup,” he said. There was a brief moment where neither of them said anything and then Lup sighed, reluctantly nodding.

“Alright, fine. I want someplace private though,” she demanded, and Kravitz nodded, genuinely surprised that Taako had decided to include him.

“Your brother’s room should do nicely,” he said, and Lup’s head whipped back towards Taako at that.

_ “Your  _ room? What the fuck?” she asked, and Taako just grinned at that.

“Oh yeah, it’s swanky as fuck, come on you gotta check this out,” he said, grabbing her wrist and starting to drag her deeper into the castle. Kravitz followed along, and when a few guards started to hesitantly follow he gave them the signal to stand down. It was kind of obvious that they didn’t like that, but they didn’t argue either, not following.

As soon as they were in Taako’s room and Kravitz had shut the door behind them Lup rounded on her brother, all that enraged confusion from before back. It was honestly a sight to behold and Kravitz was thankful it wasn’t directed at him at this exact moment.

“Koko you better explain to me right now what the fuck is going on, because you’re my brother and I love you and I will respect whatever choices you make romantically but this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” she snapped. Kravitz understood why Taako had wanted him here when he turned towards him, a somewhat pleading look on his face.

“Right, so Krav I know we said stick to the plan, but uh, I’d like to introduce you to my sister for real this time. I can’t steal the last cheese stick without her figuring out it was me so the lies we’ve been going with so far? They’re not gonna cut it,” he said, and a little reluctantly Kravitz nodded.

“Yes, I suppose that’s fair. It’s a bit easier to claim to have kept something so large a secret in my case when I already have to keep so much of my private life under lock and key,” he said, and Taako seemed to relax some at that.

“What are you two talking about?” Lup asked, and they hadn’t actually explained anything yet but she’d already seemed to calm down some.

“Alright so, Lulu, I might’ve fucked up a little bit last night,” Taako started.

“We- we fucked up. I can claim responsibility for my hand in this as well,” Kravitz cut in, and Taako nodded quickly.

“Right so, I might have been cause sneaking into a part of the palace I wasn’t  _ strictly  _ supposed to be in, and I also might have made up some lie on the spot about waiting for my fiance. When this tall drink of water came around the corner I kinda pretended we were engaged,” Taako started to explain, and Kravitz could see the ever increasing disbelief forming on Lup’s face.

“I thought it was funny and played along. Then the guard decided to announce our ‘engagement’ to the entire gala,” Kravitz muttered, wanting very much to hide his face and having to settle with just not meeting anyone’s eyes instead.

“We got everything under control though! We have a plan so that everyone gets out of this with as little issues as possible and we don’t even have to actually get married!” Taako quickly assured her.

“Yes! We’re- I would absolutely hate for any of this to come down unfairly on Taako. So I’ve arranged for him to stay in the palace until media attention has died down as much as possible and we can quietly announce an end to our engagement and he can return to his life,” Kravitz explained.

“And I promised Krav to play along with the whole engagement thing while I’m staying here so that his mom doesn’t figure out what a major fuck up we had in front of like, the entire country,” Taako added. Lup didn’t say anything for a long moment, and it was hard to read her expression. Kravitz honestly could not tell what she was thinking.

And then suddenly she was doubled over, her shoulders shaking. Kravitz was worried for a moment before he realized that she was laughing silently. It wasn’t too long before that silence broke, and Kravitz supposed laughter was the best reaction they were going to get for all of this. After a moment she managed to straighten back up somewhat, wiping tears from her eyes as she slowly got herself back under control

“I never thought… I would meet someone… as big of a disaster as my brother, but oh boy. This takes the cake. You two  _ should _ get married, you’re obviously perfect for each other,” Lup said. Kravitz could feel his face heat up at that, Taako sputtering some at the accusation.

“First of all I’m not a disaster, second of all we’re  _ not _ getting married. Oh, but Kravitz did promise that I could cater the gala next year!” Taako said, and Lup somehow looked more surprised by that then by their whole explanation of how they had gotten into this convoluted mess.

“Oh shit, for real? How have you even had the time to cook for him yet?” she asked, and Taako shrugged at that.

“I haven’t? I was just pointing out all the cheap tricks the people they had this year did,” he said. Kravitz felt very put on the spot by the look Lup gave him at that, a simple, slow raise of her eyebrow.

“The way he talks leads me to believe he is very knowledgeable and skilled. I have no doubt that he would be able to pull off the event with flying colors,” he insisted, and she nodded at that.

“Oh yeah, for sure. Just didn’t think royalty was willing to hire for such an important even based on word alone. You lucked out on this one, he's actually as good as he says he is,” she said, and Kravitz wasn’t sure what to say to that. Thankfully Taako cut in before he had to, steering the conversation back to the main topic at hand.

“So anyway, the main point is I’m not being forced to stay here or anything, it’s honestly chill as hell. You can’t tell anyone about this though Lup, it’s uh, pretty important that we go along with the whole engaged thing for now,” he said. To Kravitz’s relief Lup nodded, apparently willing to go along with their ruse.

“For sure bro, far be it from me to mess up the whole sugar baby deal you’ve got yourself,” she said, and Kravitz actually groaned at that, this time not bothering with dignity and hiding his face in his hands.

“Okay! Again, not what’s going on here at all!” Taako shouted, and at least he seemed just as flustered by the accusations as Kravitz was. Apparently he wasn’t as comfortable with it when he wasn’t the one making the jokes.

“Whatever, whatever,” Lup said, and her posture shifted from joking to surprisingly seriously. “But while you’re staying here, am I gonna like, be able to see you? How long will this even last for?” she asked.

“A few months, we think?” he asked, and Kravitz was surprised when he actually turned towards him for the other question. He supposed it made sense though, it was his castle.

“You are of course welcome to visit Taako whenever you wish. As I said, you’re his family and we are not holding him  _ prisoner _ here by any means. He’s also free to come see you, although we might want to limit that right now with the news still as fresh as it is,” he said, and they both seemed to relax quite a bit at that. “I suppose we could set up another room for you as well, if you also wished to stay here? That one I would have to ask my mother about first though,” he said, and he was a little surprised when Lup shook her head.

“You good if I bring my boyfriend along too?” she asked, and Kravitz shrugged to the side.

“Eeeh? It wouldn’t be an immediate rejection?” he said, and Lup actually laughed at that.

“Appreciate that, but I think we could probably stand with visits for now, you good with that Koko?” she asked, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah, I guess, if you  _ don’t _ want to take up a chance to live in the fucking palace, sure,” he said, and Lup looked as unimpressed as possible as she responded.

“Eh, too many guards for my liking,” she said, Taako seeming to think that over for a moment before nodding like it was a reasonable complaint. “But with that whole explanation out of the way, princey would you mind if I talked to my brother alone for just a minute?” she asked, turning towards him. Kravitz nodded quickly.

“Of course not, if you would like to take your time I can have a guard stand by and you can signal him when you’re finished,” he offered, but Lup shook her head.

“Not, should be pretty quick. If you want you can just wait outside,” she said, seeming to think that over for a moment before adding, “or like, you might be busy. Royalty, do you even do anything? Like for real? Or is it all posturing?” she asked, and Kravitz couldn’t help but laugh at that.

“I see being brazen is a family trait,” he said, and he could imagine the kind of trouble they could get into if they acted like this to the wrong people. Kravitz often found himself having to bite his tongue, and the idea of having someone who at the very least could complain with him after all the boring meetings was nice.

Temporarily of course, since he was well aware that Taako was not going to stay.

“But yes, I do like to think we actually do things. As it is though we’ve had that gala enough times to know to have a pretty clear schedule the day after, so I do not mind waiting,” he said, heading towards the door.

“Sounds good, we’ll grab you when we’re done,” Taako said, and with that Kravitz nodded, leaving the room. He walked a bit of a ways down the hall, mostly to curb any temptation he might have to eavesdrop.

He ended up waiting for about ten minutes, and he couldn’t help but wonder what they were talking about. He supposed there was a lot they would need to figure out with this new surprise change to their lives. Maybe he should have made sure to offer to pay for any loss of income with Taako’s new arrangements before he left? There was so much going on though he hadn’t thought about it. He supposed he could always offer later.

He was a little relieved when the door opened. If he was left alone with his thoughts for much longer he would have definitely started to panic for not good reason. He was able to handle a lot of complicated social interactions, but this was so much more than he was used to.

Kravitz was a little surprised when only Lup came out though. He guessed it shows on his face, because she gave him a smile that he was pretty sure was supposed to be reassuring. Somehow thought it managed to feel just the slightest bit menacing.

“So we’re all good charming, also figured it couldn’t hurt to talk to you alone for a minute if that’s cool?” she asked, and he nodded.

“Of course. If there’s any way I can help with how turbulent this must be please let me know,” he said, hoping his offer came across as genuine as he felt it was. Lup had a thoughtful look on her face before nodding slowly.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, taking a moment to slowly look him over. “So, what was the real reason you went along with my brother’s bullshit? I’m sure boredom and the hilarity of it all were certainly factors, but there’s no way that was it,” she said, surprisingly blunt and straightforward. Kravitz had hoped that he had gotten out of having this conversation, but apparently not.

“That’s- I mean,” he stuttered out, and he could feel how hot his face was as he blurted out, “he’s very attractive, alright? He’s an attractive person and I had simply hoped to get a chance to talk to him.”

Lup was grinning brightly as he finished, and Kravitz kind of wanted to die.

“Yeah alright, that’s what I figured,” he said, and somehow it was worse that she had already guessed that. “So what’s the plan here? You trying to court my brother for real or what?” she asked next, and this conversation was all kinds of terrible.

“I do not wish to pressure him into anything. I understand these are not… ideal circumstances. I would not want him to think I am expecting anything with our current arrangement being what it is,” he said. After all, Taako had made it rather clear that he was not looking for a relationship, and Kravitz could respect that. Maybe a little disappointed, but he was a grown adult. He could get over it.

“Huh, good answer,” Lup said, and Kravitz wasn’t sure if this had been some sort of test or not, but if it was he was very relieved he seemed to have passed. She smiled, clasping him on the shoulder. “So, I’m gonna apologize in advance for all the bullshit my brother’ll get into. You seem like a good dude, I doubt you deserve it,” she added, and Kravitz laughed at that.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” he said, but from the look Lup gave him he wasn’t sure if it was.

With that she said that she needed to get back to their home. Apparently she had left in quite a rush and her fiance was sure to be fairly worried about her at this point. Considering how she had come into the palace, Kravitz felt that worry was more than earned. Flagging down a guard, he had him escort Lup out of the palace before heading back to Taako’s room.

Taako looked surprisingly flustered as he walked into the room, although he pulled himself together at the sight of him.

“A guard is escorting your sister out of the palace and will see to it that she makes it back to your home safely,” he said, and Taako nodded, looking a little relieved at that.

“Thanks uh, you didn’t have to. We’re pretty good at handling ourselves,” he said, and Kravitz quickly shook his head because that wasn’t what he’d meant to imply at all. He hadn’t known either of them for long, but it was clear that they were both very capable.

“I wanted to, with the paparazzi and journalists still hanging around outside I didn’t want her to get caught in the middle of it. I’ve already caused enough trouble for your family. It really is the least I could do,” he said, and Taako smiled softly at that.

“I mean let’s be honest, it’s a joint effort. We’ve  _ both _ caused plenty of problems,” he said, and Kravitz chuckled at that.

“I suppose that’s fair,” he said, and as the conversation trailed off an awkward silence started to fill the room. After all, it wasn’t as if they were any sort of long time friends. They barely knew each other, and now that things were quiet Kravitz honestly wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t actually all that good at this, not when it wasn’t some political game.

“So uh, you were talking about taking the rest of the day easy?” Taako asked, and Kravitz nodded. “In that case, how would you feel to giving cha’ boy a proper tour of the palace? If I’m gonna be staying here for however long,” he added, and Kravitz was immediately relieved to have a direction instead of continuing to stand there wondering if he should say something.

“Yes, of course. We can absolutely do a tour,” he said, starting to lead Taako out of the room. Once they were in the hallway he offered his arm to the man, who took it like he had last night at the gala, resting his hand casually in the crook of his elbow. Kravitz told himself it was just because it was more convincing this way as they walked through the palace.

“So you already know where my room is, my mother’s is down that hall, but honestly she rarely stays there,” he said as they started the tour. Taako nodded along, seeming mildly intrigued at most. Kravitz kept on narrating anything somewhat interesting as they moved through the palace, meetings rooms and music rooms and parlors. Taako would ask questions here and there, and it was all starting to feel a little more natural again.

“You play an instrument then I’m assuming?” he asked as they stopped by one of the music rooms. Kravitz nodded, his smile maybe a little bit smug as he answered.

“A few, yes,” he said, and Taako had let go of his arm to walk around the room some. He turned back towards him now though, an intrigued look on his face as he raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah? How many?” he asked.

“Nine,” Kravitz answered easily, very much enjoying the impressed look on Taako’s face at that. This might have actually been the first time Taako actually seemed truly intrigued by anything he had done so far. Sure, he walked around in awe of a lot of the features of the palace during the ball last night, but this was directed solely at him.

It probably wasn’t a good thing how pleased he was with that attention, how much he would very much like Taako to keep looking at him like that.

“Well damn. Ya know Lup plays the violin, shoulda gotten you two to jam out before she left,” he said, and Kravitz’s attention turned towards his own violin. It was one of his favorites, and he found himself intrigued by the idea of playing along with someone else.

“I would be honored to the next time she visits,” he said, and Taako grinned at that.

“Hell yeah, I’ll let Lup know. She’ll be so fucking down,” he said, still looking around the room casually. Kravitz watched as he tried to sneakily press a key of the large piano in the corner, flinching back when the noise was louder than he expected.

“Do you play anything?” he asked, and Taako scoffed at the question.

“Yeah, a mean game of pool, but if you mean instruments, nah. That was always more of Lup’s thing,” he said, and Kravitz chuckled at that.

“Fair enough,” he said, definitely a little interested in the prospect of playing pool or perhaps some cards with Taako during his stay here. Maybe it would be better if he didn’t bring up that idea right away though. Kravitz was aware that he could get a little carried away whenever gambling was involved, he couldn’t blame his mother for never letting him go to a casino unattended.

“Would you like to learn?” he asked instead, getting a confused look from Taako. “In instrument, I mean. If you would like to learn I would be more than happy to teach you,” he clarified. Taako hummed thoughtfully, gently running his hands over the piano keys again, not actually pressing down hard enough to play any of them.

“Maybe, we’ll have to see if anything moves me,” Taako said, which was a fair enough answer. It wasn’t a no, so Kravitz was still a little excited at the possibility. “I definitely won’t say no about getting a private concert from the prince though, if you ever feel like letting cha’ boy into your practice sessions,” he added, and Kravitz grinned brightly at that.

“Of course,” he said, almost offering to stop and play for him right now. He wondered if that would seem too eager though. “It would be a bit of a waste of knowing so many instruments if I didn’t use at least some of them to serenade my fiance, after all,” he added instead. The dark blush across Taako’s face was certainly satisfying, but the satisfaction unfortunately did not end up lasting long.

“Ya know, you don’t gotta keep pretending when we’re alone,” Taako muttered, and immediately Kravitz’s smile fell. He nodded quickly, because he did know. He knew and he was fine with it.

“Right, no I- sorry. I did not intend to make you uncomfortable,” he said. Taako shook his head though, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking.

“It’s chill, I’m not- it doesn’t bother me, just ya know, you don’t gotta keep up some act. We can just be cool,” he said, and Kravitz could appreciate the sentiment there. He could appreciate it so much that his smile was mostly genuine even, nodding and trying to make himself relax a bit more.

“Alright, cool. I can be cool,” he said, in a way he was fairly sure was not all that cool from the way Taako snorted a small laugh.

“Yeah, sure you can babe. We’ll work on it,” he said, holding out his hand again for Kravitz. “So, should we continue the tour then?” he asked. Kravitz nodded, putting his arm out again.

“Let’s,” he said, starting to lead Taako again.

He meant what he said to Lup, that he knew this was not the best situation and he certainly was going to pursue anything if Taako was not interested. He still stood by that fully and entirely, and so he was going to try his best to be ‘cool.’

It would be for the best anyway. Maybe if they stopped flirting while it was only the two of them Kravitz would actually be able to get it through his head that Taako wasn’t interested.

Maybe then this damn crush would start to fade, instead of seeming to only get stronger with every little thing Taako did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so since work is starting back up in earnest now and i'm trying to finish up a couple of other fics before the year ends I think i'm moving this fic to being updated every other week instead of every week. Still gonna try and keep it consistent though and updates'll probably be on Mondays or Tuesdays. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy


	7. Some Adjustments

Taako followed along, actually trying to pay attention as Kravitz showed him around the palace. It was a huge place, and if he was going to be here for a while he didn’t want to constantly get lost.

That, and the whole tour thing was a pretty decent distraction from the conversation he’d had with Lup. Not a perfect one, there was still the fact that he was walking around hanging off of the prince’s arm like a lovestruck idiot, but it was all a part of the act. Which he was more than fine with.

Taako guessed he couldn’t be surprised that Lup suspected something else was going on, and like he didn’t think anyone could blame him if he was interested in the prince. How often do you get drop dead gorgeous on top of an actually decent and funny person? Whoever he did end up eventually marrying for real was going to be one lucky son of a bitch, that was for sure.

But it wasn’t going to be Taako, and he told Lup that. This was all just a fun game of pretend and he would be mature and grateful when it was all over.

“And this is the library,” Kravitz said, pulling Taako out of his thoughts. He might have been more pretending to be distracted than actually distracted, but the sight in front of him certainly managed to pull his mind away from all of that finally.

“Holy shit,” he said, letting go of the prince’s arm immediately to rush in, going up and starting to scan the bookcases as fast as he could. The room was huge, tall ceilings stacked all the way up with full shelves. Just from the quick glances in a small part he could see things on history and politics and thick novels. There was so much more he couldn’t even get to yet. “And like, I can come here whenever? Because I live here now?” he asked, and he could hear Kravitz chuckle behind him.

“Of course. Whatever makes you feel more at home,” he said, and usually Taako would try to have some sort of witty retort for that, but he was too caught up trying to see everything they had. It didn’t take him too long to find where the section started to shift into the sciences, and he moved a little slower there. He would have time to come back later, but it still felt like he needed to take in as much as possible before he had to leave. It was a hard habit not to try and slip the more interesting and useful books into his bag.

“I didn’t know you liked to read,” Kravitz said, and Taako could understand why he worded it that way, since there were guards wandering around every so often. He hadn’t paid much attention to if there were any in here though, but with all the bookcases it would be hard to tell regardless.

“Oh yeah, a bit,” he said, trying to sound noncommittal and mostly sounding distracted.

“Well then please, use this to your heart’s content,” he said, and Taako did manage to grin at that.

“I will, don’t you worry about that,” he said, reluctantly turning away to look back at Kravitz. “I know you were talking about teaching me music, but I think I’ll have my hands full here,” he added, and Kravitz looked a little amused as he nodded.

“It didn’t hurt to offer,” he said with a shrug. “What kind of books do you like? Perhaps I could put in a request if there’s something in particular you would like?” he asked next, surprising Taako some. Like he got that the dude needed to keep up appearances for their charade, and he doubted any of the things he was offering were that big of a deal.

Still, it was nice, Taako couldn’t argue with that.

“Uh, chemistry?” he said tentatively, and he expected the surprised look on Kravitz’s face at that.

“Chemistry?” he asked, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah, I like incorporating chemistry into my cooking. You can make some hella fun shit when you know what you’re working with. Also, some non food related stuff too, it’s kinda my specialty,” he explained, enjoying the impressed look on Kravitz’s face. Sometimes it was annoying always having people underestimate him, but he cultivated that persona for a reason.

“Well we should definitely have some books on that for sure, but I can get you more if you’d like,” he said, and Taako smiled at that.

“I think I can start off with what you got and let you know from there,” he said, Kravitz nodding.

“That works,” he said, and Taako could see him thinking something over before continuing. “If you are still interested in watching some of my music practice would you perhaps be amenable to me watching you work on this some time? I will admit I don’t know much more than the basics when it comes to such things. I’d be very interested in learning more,” he said, and Taako grinned at that.

“Yeah alright, I think that could work out fine,” he said, Kravitz looking somewhere between relieved and excited.

It was only then that Taako noticed they were definitely standing a bit closer than they needed to, and he wasn’t too sure if he should take a step back or not. They were pretending to be engaged, but as far as he could tell there wasn’t anyone else in the library with them at the moment.

“So um, would you like to continue the tour? Or we can stay here longer if you’re interested in looking through some books now,” Kravitz asked, and Taako quickly thought it over.

“We can keep going, I’m still interested in seeing the rest of this place. You best believe I’ll be back here though,” he said, and Kravitz nodded at that. Somehow walking with their arms linked together felt less intense than standing real close to the dude. At least this was a part of the act he was starting to get used to.

The next few areas they visited weren’t quite as interesting as the library, but Taako wasn’t exactly expecting them to be. Still, it was interesting enough looking at all the ins and outs of the palace.

They’d been walking for a while at this point now, and this place really was huge. Taako knew that going in, but it was another thing to experience it for real. He was starting to get tempted to ask if they were gonna be near the end of this here grand tour soon when Kravitz spoke up.

“You said you were a chef, correct?” he asked, and Taako raised an eyebrow as he nodded at the question.

“Sure fucking am, a damn good one too,” he said, not about to downplay his talents now. The prince had already agreed to let him cater the gala for next year, so they were well past the time for modesty. Kravitz smiled slightly at that, not seeming bothered by the boasting, which Taako appreciated.

“In that case, I was wondering if you would like to check out the kitchen?” he asked, and Taako immediately started to squeeze the arm he’d been holding tight enough that it was probably painful. Definitely a little painful, considering the subtle wince Kravitz gave. He couldn’t bring himself to care too much about that, although Taako did let up slightly as he nodded.

“Yes, fuck yes, what are you waiting for my dude why did we even bother with the rest of the tour?” he asked, getting a chuckle out of Kravitz. Thankfully he did start leading them towards what Taako could assume was the kitchen without any more wait.

There were large double doors that led back into it, and as soon as they were inside Taako was off of Kravitz and inspecting every inch he could. There were a few cooks still back there, but it was between meal times. They seemed confused by their presence, but before the prince could explain they were politely excusing themselves and heading out, which was fine by Taako. All the more space for him to explore.

“Fuck, this place is huge. I could cook  _ so much _ in here. I would do  _ unspeakable things _ for this blender,” Taako said, torn between wanting to touch fucking everything and being too afraid to touch equipment that cost more than his fucking apartment.

“I mean, you’re free to,” Kravitz said, and Taako paused at that. Before he could ask for any sort of clarification the prince quickly continued. “Not- you don’t have to  _ do anything, _ I mean you are free to use the kitchen as much as you would like. I’ll put in a word with the kitchen staff so that they know to expect you,” he explained, and Taako supposed that he shouldn’t be surprised. It certainly wasn’t any more extravagant than any of the other things Kravitz had offered without thinking. Hell if anything it was a lot less than any of the others, because it was literally ‘yeah sure you can use the kitchen in the place you’re living in.’

It was still the best fucking thing Kravitz could offer him.

“Holy shit, seriously? I could kiss you,” he said, honestly a hair away from actually pulling him into one in his excitement. The only real thing stopping him was that Kravitz was out of arm’s reach at the moment as Taako had run around the kitchen.

_ “Oh?” _ Kravitz practically squeaked out, which was a sort of adorable Taako was not prepared for. It was also kind of hilarious, considering they’d already kissed more than once at the gala and all. The prince quickly coughed, taking a moment to regain his composure before speaking again. “I uh, mean of course, as I said before you’re free to anything that might make your stay here a bit more comfortable,” he said, and Taako was full out grinning now.

“In that case,  _ out,” _ he said, walking over and starting to push the prince out of the kitchen. Kravitz stumbled some, looking torn between following along and arguing with him.

“I- um- why?” he managed to ask, and Taako couldn’t keep from smiling as he moved the prince back towards the door.

“Because that breakfast was fantastic, but it was also forever ago and I’m fucking  _ starving. _ Plus my sister is right, ain’t fair that you’ve agreed to let me cook for the gala before even  _ tasting _ any of my shit yet. We gotta fix that pronto,” he said, and he could see the moment where it clicked in Kravitz’s head. He was still going along as Taako shoved him through the big double doors, but he quickly turned back around to look at him.

“That’s- you don’t have to! You’ve had a long day, the last thing I would do is ask for you to cook for me right now,” Kravitz tried, and Taako could understand the sentiment there. It was honestly pretty sweet, but he still shook his head.

“Then it’s a good thing you’re not asking,  _ I am, _ and you just said I could ask for anything that would make me more comfortable staying here,” he said, and he could see the reluctance on Kravitz’s face. He slowly nodded though, letting out a small sigh.

“Will this really help you feel more comfortable?” he asked, and Taako nodded intently.

“Yeah it’s- I’m the type who stress bakes my dude. I promise you, an hour alone in this kitchen is  _ exactly _ what the doctor’s ordering,” he said, and Kravitz smiled at that before nodding.

“Alright then, if that’s what you would like I’ll let the rest of the cooks know that they can have the afternoon off, unless you would like some assistance?” he asked, and Taako shook his head.

“Nah, maybe another time but cha’ boy wants to get a feel for everything first. Lulu’s the only one who can keep up with me in the kitchen when I’m experimenting,” he said, and Kravitz seemed to take that well enough.

“Alright then. I eagerly await to see what you come up with,” he said, and Taako flashed him another grin before shutting the doors and closing himself off alone in the nicest fucking kitchen he’d ever been in in his entire life. He did actually feel a little bad that Lup hadn’t stuck around, he was going to  _ have to _ drag her back here at some point soon.

Immediately he went over to the pantry and the fridge to see what he had to work with. There was so much food, but Taako could tell that everything was a bit sparser than it should be. Or really, a lot sparser. Which made sense, considering this was the kitchen the day after a huge fucking banquet. Still, there was more than enough for Taako to work with to make a baller lunch. Recipes were running through his head as he tried to figure out what to do, a part of him really wanting to impress the prince with this.

He couldn’t go as all out as he could with dinner, but there was a lot of skill in a simple dish executed perfectly.

Taako decided to go with a lamb stew, because they have fucking  _ lamb _ and fuck that sounded good right now. He cut up potatoes and carrots and god, there were so many different kinds of mushrooms. He made some bread as well, and it wouldn’t be as good as if he had a good couple of hours to let it rise, but it would still be pretty damn good.

The layout of the kitchen was definitely going to take some getting used to, and it was  _ so much bigger _ than anything Taako had ever worked in before. It would take a lot to even try and use up so much space, but fuck if he wasn’t going to try it eventually. Right now he was able to stick to a small section to get everything he needed done, but he still found himself running around to look for certain items or ingredients.

He hadn’t been lying when he told Kravitz that cooking helped him relax though. As he was moving about the kitchen, his mind focused on the food and smells and all the fun new gadgets he was just  _ dying _ to try out, he was able to slip into a comfortable familiarity, even in such an unfamiliar place. He knew what he was doing when he was cooking, even with so much new around him, and he didn’t have to think about anything but when the next timer was going to go off.

It ended up taking a bit longer than an hour to get everything done, but Taako told himself that would only mean that the prince would be even more hungry when he went to try it.

Sticking his head out the door, Taako couldn’t help but be disappointed when instead of the prince, there was a guard standing in his place.

“Where’s Krav?” he asked, and he didn’t mean to sound as pouty as he did there. The guard didn’t make any comment on it, which was appreciated.

“He had another matter to attend to, but requested that I send for him as soon as you called sir,” he said, and Taako supposed that was fair enough. He was the prince after all, he couldn’t sit around for over an hour waiting for Taako to finish cooking.

“Well I’m calling, so you can get fetching,” he said. The guard nodded, heading off to go find Kravitz wherever he’d gotten off to. Taako told himself he wasn’t being impatient as he waited by the door, tapping his foot and his fingers and honestly anything else within tapping distance. He was just hungry and wanted to eat the delicious fucking meal he’d prepared already.

Sure, he could just start chowing down. Kravitz was cool, he probably wouldn’t actually give any sort of shit about royalty eating first or any of that.

He’d waited for Taako at breakfast though, so it just seemed like the polite thing to do. 

When Kravitz did show up Taako found the sour mood he’d developed while waiting dissipating near instantly, which was a little annoying in its own right. Still, it was a little hard to keep being irritated when the prince looked so genuinely excited.

“Sorry for the wait, I’m uh, bad at sitting still,” he said, and Taako actually snorted at that. Damn it, princes weren’t  _ actually _ supposed to be this charming. They were supposed to be charming in that kind of ethereal way with a winning smile and the whole ‘sweep you off your feet’ air around them. Like, sure it wasn’t like Kravitz  _ lacking _ in any of that, but he was also just so fucking dorky. It was adorable.

“Eh, don’t stress my dude. Go sit down, I’m not waiting any longer to eat, alright?” he said. Kravitz nodded, and Taako turned back into the kitchen without a second to waste. He hadn’t dished up the bowls yet, which was a good idea since he had to actually wait for Kravitz to arrive. He did that now, cutting off large chunks of bread and putting them on a tray with some garlic butter he’d whipped up as well.

When he carried out the trays he could see the moment Kravitz started to get up to come help him before seeming to think better of it. Which was fair, Taako was fucking good at this shit, setting the sleek metal trays down with nary a spill.

“It smells absolutely incredible,” Kravitz said, and Taako nodded, taking a seat and grabbing his own bowl.

“Fuck yeah it does. Tell me what you think, and don’t hold back alright? Just because I’m your fiance and all doesn’t stop any honest criticism, not that you’ll have any,” he said with a wink. The prince smiled at that, taking a large spoonful of the stew. Taako was hungry, but he found himself pausing as he watched Kravitz try it.

“Oh  _ damn _ , you weren’t kidding,” he said, quickly taking another scoop. Taako’s grin was definitely smug as he started shoveling soup into his mouth as well, and yeah, it was damn good. Definitely some of his finer work.

“The kitchen was a little sparse considering all the work for the gala last night. Wait till you see what I can do when I’ve got a fully stocked kitchen like that under my belt,” he said, and he could see Kravitz’s brain working at that thought. Taako watched as he tried some of the bread next, spreading a good helping of the garlic butter on beforehand.

“Holy shit, marry me,” Kravitz muttered in-between bites of food, and Taako froze slightly, his face definitely heating up. He laughed, and maybe it was a little more awkward and forced than a normal laugh.

“I mean, that’s the plan,” he said, because he was pretty sure there were guards hanging out on the other side of the open archways that lead into the dining room. Kravitz only then seemed to realize exactly what he’d said, choking slightly before quickly hitting his chest and getting himself back under control.

“Right, I know that. Just uh, looking forward to it,” he said, and Taako nodded, taking the moment to shove his face into some bread.

The rest of the meal was spent in some awkward silence, broken up by small talk here and there that slowly grew into something a little more natural. It was mostly Kravitz asking about the food and Taako was more than willing to explain his process. Sure, he wasn’t going to give away all his cooking secrets, but it wasn’t anything too big for this simple of a dish that he’d whipped up on the spot.

“You know, I really don’t get it,” Kravitz said, leaning back some once they’d finished off lunch. Taako raised an eyebrow at that, cocking his head to the side slightly.

“Don’t get what?” he asked.

“How you weren’t already famous before this. It doesn’t make sense that someone with your skill isn’t world renowned,” he said, and Taako smiled some at that. He chuckled, shrugging noncommittally.

“Sometimes the world just doesn’t know a good thing when it sees it. I mean, Lulu and I are working on it for sure, don’t you worry about that. Sometimes it just takes time I guess,” he said, kind of hoping Kravitz wouldn’t press any further than that. He seemed a little skeptical but nodded all the same after a moment.

“Well if nothing else I will be glad if all of this helps to expedite that process for you a bit. It should be a crime for skills like yours to go unnoticed like that,” he said, and Taako’s smile stretched a little bit wider at that.

“I mean, you could make that happen,” he said, getting a snort of laughter out of the prince.

“Okay, that might be a little hard to actually enforce, but my point still stands,” he said. The awkwardness from before had faded almost entirely by now, and Taako figured he could push it out of his mind. He made a point to get up and actually put the leftovers they had away, because there was no excuse to waste food. Plus, the Queen hadn’t had a chance to eat any yet, but Kravitz assured him that he would insist she grab some the next chance she had. Which the idea of feeding the queen was even more intimidating than feeding the prince, probably because he hadn’t seen the Queen acting like a massive dork or anything yet.

After lunch Kravitz figured he would like some time to chill out and adjust, which at that point Taako was pretty down for. Cooking helped him feel better for sure, but he was still exhausted from not having slept much at all the night before. So when Kravitz offered to let him chill out in the library until dinner, Taako accepted pretty handily. He’d seen so much of the palace today that it was kind of hard to remember the way back, but thankfully the prince escorted him the way there.

There were a lot of comfy seats set up in the library, and Taako grabbed several of the books he’d been checking out earlier before curling up as much as possible.

Taako didn’t realize how much time had passed or that he’d nearly fallen asleep until a guard came later to let him know that dinner was ready. The prince and the Queen were both there, so he tried not to show just how tired he still was. The Queen had apparently gotten a chance to eat the lunch he made and was just as impressed as Kravitz had been. The dinner they actually ate was still real fucking good, but they both claimed to prefer his soup for sure.

After dinner Taako excused himself to his room, figuring he could crash out early tonight. He was certainly exhausted enough that he felt like he’d pass out pretty quick, and the prince didn’t seem offended or anything at him not sticking around to chat some more.

The only pajamas he had were still the ones the prince had lent him, and he should probably get around to requesting some personal ones. That was a thing future him could worry about, for now they were still the most comfortable sleep clothes he’d ever had.

Laying down in the huge, comfortable bed, Taako prepared himself to pass out.

And found himself staring up at the ceiling for like three fucking hours.

It was stupid, he was fucking exhausted. But as soon as he laid down all that seemed to evaporate away as he was left focusing on how damn quiet the room was. He could occasionally hear the buzzing of insects outside, but otherwise the quiet highlighted how utterly alone Taako was.

He really didn’t want to go another night without sleeping, but the only other he could think of was out of the question.

Or at least, it was until it was already 1am and he was still awake.

Throwing his blankets off of himself, he didn’t bother grabbing anything. He didn’t have anything he needed to take after all, he was just going to sleep. Peaking out of his room, it really wasn’t a long walk to the prince’s room, he’d made sure of that when setting Taako up.

He immediately regretted his decision to do this when he saw the guard standing at Kravitz’s door. Taako’s first attempt was to just ignore him, but that didn’t work, the dude stepping in his way. It was only then that he realized this was that same fucker who had caught him the first time, the one who went and announced their little ‘engagement’ to the whole damn world.

“Uh, excuse me?” he said, an irritated tone to his voice. This was both because he was irritated and the best option was always to just pretend you were supposed to be here.

“No one may enter the prince’s chambers while he is asleep,” Leon said, and Taako frowned at that.

“I’m his fiance my dude, did you forget?” he said, the guard not seeming moved in the slightest.

“Perhaps once you are married you will have an exception,” he said, and Taako rolled his eyes heavily at that.

“The prince  _ told me _ I could come see him whenever I wanted if I ever needed anything. You wanna go directly against the prince’s word?” he tried, and it was clear he wasn’t budging.

“Then you may knock on the door and hope that he awakes to assist you,” Leon said. Taako shot him with the nastiest glare he could muster, walking up and knocking on the door loudly. He was trying to will his face not to turn beet fucking red as he waited for some sort of answer.

The door opened surprisingly quickly, and it took Taako a few seconds to remember how words worked. The prince had clearly sprung up out of bed, a sleepy, confused look on his face and his braids going every which way. He was wearing his own sleep shirt and some pajama pants, and there was definitely something a little surreal about seeing him dressed down.

“What’s- Taako?” he asked, clearly trying to wake up but still half asleep.

“The guard wouldn’t let me in,” he said, as if that was the only issue here. As tired as he was Kravitz didn’t seem to think too much of that, shooting the guard a befuddled look.

“Well that’s stupid,” he said, stepping back from the doorway. “Come’n,” he mumbled, and this time Taako openly stuck his tongue out at the guard as he passed him. As soon as he was inside and Kravitz shut the door he could see the gears tick over in the prince’s head as he blinked. “Wait.  _ Why _ are you in my room?” he asked, it having just then occurred to him.

“I can’t sleep,” he said, and Kravitz still looked pretty damn confused. Taako sighed, avoiding eye contact as much as he could. “It’s too quiet and big, it’s just- I’ve always been around people, noisy apartments or sharing a room with Lup when we were kids and things like that. It’s just… weird being alone,” he said, and when he chanced looking up Kravitz nodded slowly.

“Would you like to stay here?” he asked, and Taako shrugged, because it was probably pretty obvious.

“If that’s cool with you?” he said, and he was more relieved than he expected when Kravitz nodded.

“Yeah uh, if it’ll help,” he said, and with that the prince started to walk back over to his monster of a bed. Taako had definitely been right about it not being an issue for both of them to sleep in it. When Kravitz moved over to one side there was plenty of room and pillows and shit for him to splay out pretty nice.

“Uh, thanks Krav,” he mumbled after a moment of getting himself comfortable.

“Mhmm,” Kravitz hummed back, clearly already mostly asleep. It was stupid that it left Taako smiling, and as he rolled over to put his back to the prince he could hear his breathing start to slow into an even rhythm.

It was frankly kind of ridiculous how fast he managed to fall asleep listening to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> listen there are many beds physically but _emotionally_ there is Only One Bed here. that's just how it be. 
> 
> as always thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy!


	8. Baby Steps

When Kravitz woke up the next morning he wasn’t thinking of much of anything. Then he figured that he must’ve had a rather strange dream last night, the vague memory of Taako coming to his room and talking to him resurfacing. He supposed it made sense that he would have already started to pervade his dreams, he was certainly the thing most on his mind at the moment.

Then he rolled over, and when he started to blink his eyes awake he froze, his breath catching in his throat as he struggled not to immediately choke.

Okay. Okay, apparently not a dream. Apparently that had actually happened and Taako was laying about four inches from his face still sound asleep. He looked peaceful, mostly wrapped up in blankets, his hair loose from the braid he was partial to and sprawled out around him.

He should back up. He was too close and he should roll away from him and definitely stop staring at him. Unfortunately Kravitz's brain was not working well enough having just woken up to process all of that, and seemed content to leave him laying there like an idiot.

Still, even though he was taking a moment to process this situation he did not think it had been for that long. It must have just been bad timing that Taako started to wake up at this point, eyes blinking open.

It was too late to move away now, not without making it obvious that he had been staring at him beforehand. All he could do was keep laying there looking at him while Taako gave him a sleepy, confused look before the realization seemed to dawn on his face as well.

“Uh, mornin,” Taako said, and it was enough to get Kravitz to start moving again.

“Good morning,” he said, pushing back and sitting up quickly. “Um, how did you sleep?” he asked, and some of what they had talked about last night was starting to come back to him. Right, Taako had said he couldn’t sleep. Too quiet.

“Good, yeah uh, surprisingly good,” he said, pushing himself up as well. Kravitz wasn’t sure if he hadn’t parsed that Taako was still wearing his nightshirt when he’d come over or if he’d just forgotten and had to take it in all over again. Even still he managed to make himself nod, maybe a little more quickly than was necessary.

“Oh, that’s good,” he said, because it was. He certainly didn’t want Taako to not be able to do something as necessary as sleep while he was staying here.

Hopefully they would be able to find some other solution though, because Kravitz wasn’t sure how long his heart would be able to take waking up to that sight every morning.

“Uhuh,” Taako said, and the air was so awkward you could cut it with a knife and use it to insulate houses. “So um, you got stuff to do this morning? I could uh, head back to my room now if you want,” he said, and Kravitz’s first instinct was to insist there was no need for that. He only managed not to do that because he was worried it might come across as too desperate.

“Um, I mean, nothing quite this early. You’re free to stay if you wish,” he said, figuring it would be safest to just leave whether or not he wanted to leave to Taako. Kravitz wasn’t actually sure what time it was, but if he was late for anything he could make up some excuse.

“Alright, cool. I might chill for a bit then, since I apparently won’t be  _ allowed _ back in otherwise,” he said, clearly huffy about that last bit. Kravitz raised an eyebrow at that, and at least if they were talking about things that was less brain space going towards thinking about how close they still were on the bed, even if they had spread out considerably at this point.

“Right, right, what was that about? I’ll admit I was basically asleep when you came over, what happened?” he asked, and that was the truth. He remembered Taako showing up and letting him in, but the details were all fuzzy.

“That same fucking guard who started this whole mess wouldn’t let me into your room while you were asleep. I think he’s still suspicious of me. Probably thinks I used my wicked wiles to seduce you and plan on murdering you in your sleep or something,” he said, and Kravitz almost laughed at that. He wouldn’t be surprised if Leon really did think that though, and he supposed he couldn’t blame the man too bad. They  _ were _ lying after all, and maybe he shouldn’t have been so willing to let a near stranger into his room when he slept, especially in his position.

He didn’t see Taako as the kind of person to do something like that though, and he hoped he wasn’t wrong.

“Wait, is that  _ not _ what’s happening here?” Kravitz asked, joking and very pleased with the surprised bark of laughter it got out of Taako.

“Yeah alright, you found me out my dude. Sorry for the ruse, but this is the way it has to be,” he said, still snickering slightly. Kravitz nodded, as thoughtful a look on his face as he could manage while struggling not to laugh again.

“Understandable,” he said, and it really was unfair how absolutely gorgeous Taako’s smile was. Even having just obviously woken up as he was, or maybe even more so. It was definitely more unfair that he couldn’t rightfully comment on it, not without making everything uncomfortable. That was the last thing he wanted though, so he could bite his tongue on all the compliments that were trying to fight their way out of him.

“I’ll have a talk with the guards though. Let them know under no uncertain terms that you’re allowed into my room at any time,” he said, and their was definitely a part of him that dreaded the idea of that conversation. He wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly what everyone would assume with a declaration like that, but Taako was already putting up with so much. Whatever small comfort he could offer were small potatoes in comparison.

“Cool, I appreciate it,” Taako said, looking a little sheepish. “And uh, I’m sure I’ll adjust. Promise to try and not make this a nightly thing,” he added, and Kravitz swore he wasn’t disappointed by that. Or if he was, no one else needed to know but him.

“It’s no bother, whatever helps,” he said, hoping that came across as neutral enough. Figuring they could both use a nice change of topic, Kravitz turning to actually look at the clock that he had hanging up on the far wall. “What time even is it, anyway?” he asked as he did, bulking a little when he saw the time.

“Like ten,” Taako said, following his gaze over to the clock. Kravitz could see him stretch his arms up and arch his back out of the corner of the eye before flopping back down into the pillows. “I think I’m gonna chill some more if that’s cool,” he said, and there was a part of Kravitz that was tempted to join him. He would have enjoyed laying back down for a few hours, even if the thought of making that decision while awake in his right mind was a little terrifying.

Thankfully (or unfortunately) he couldn’t actually contemplate that as a real option, because he had not realized how late it was in the slightest.

“So uh actually scratch what I said before, I need to get going,” he said, throwing off whatever remains of the blankets were still wrapped around him and climbing out of bed. When he glanced back over at Taako he swore he looked a little disappointed, but maybe that was just confusion.

“Oh uh, should I scram? I can go,” he said, but Kravitz quickly shook his head. Right, okay the disappointment made sense now. He just didn’t want to get up, which was fair. He looked incredibly comfortable.

“No you’re fine, I’ll just get dressed in the washroom,” he said, Taako nodded at that.

“So, whatcha forget?” Taako asked as he looked through his wardrobe for something to wear. He normally took a while picking out his clothes, he liked looking  _ nice, _ and he didn’t have time for that now and swore that was the only thing making him nervous, not Taako watching him from the bed.

“I didn’t realize how late it already was. I have a meeting with my mother in… three minutes ago,” he said, Taako sucking in a hissed breath at that.

“Ouch, well better hurry, don’t wanna make Mama mad,” he said, and Kravitz nodded at that. Heading into the bathroom, he did get dressed quite a bit faster than he would usually, and it was rare for him to run late like this. Not unheard of though, time was something he did struggle with on occasion.

He paused once he was done, taking a deep breath and giving himself a once over in the mirror before deeming himself suitable.

It did do great things for his confidence when he caught Taako give him a double take as he came out of the washroom. Sure, he was well aware he was good looking, but it was rare that anyone who’s opinions he valued actually made any note of it (the fact that he already valued Taako’s so highly was probably not a good sign.)

“Well I’m off. As I said you’re free to stay in here as long as you would like and explore the palace as you wish. You’re probably going to have to catch breakfast alone today, but perhaps I could meet you for lunch?” Kravitz said as he headed towards the door, and he really didn’t have the time to actually discuss this. That wasn’t exactly stopping him though.

“Yeah alright, sounds good,” Taako said. Kravitz flashed a quick smile at him before heading out and starting toward his mother’s main office. It wasn’t too much of a walk to get there, but between getting ready and everything he was fifteen minutes late when he finally knocked and let himself in.

“There you are dear. I was starting to wonder if I would have to send a guard,” his mother said as he slipped inside, not looking up from whatever document she was currently looking over, small reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose. While there were guards outside of her office they were completely alone inside. It was always a relief when they could have some privacy, and even though this was supposed to be an official meeting Kravitz immediately went and slumped a bit dramatically in one of the chairs.

“Sorry for worrying you. I overslept,” he said, and it was the truth. She did not need to actually know anymore than that, because it wasn't like Taako was all that related to the oversleeping.

“I heard you had a visitor last night, it’s understandable,” she said, and Kravitz could feel his face heating up. There was a small throw pillow on the chair he was in and he grabbed it, trying to hide his face in it to no real success.

“That’s unrelated. He was just having a hard time sleeping,” he said, and there was definitely something strange about his mother not knowing the full story. Him and Taako had talked about it though, this was definitely the best way to go about it for everyone.

Of course his mother didn’t even have to say anything to that, just humming understandably and nodding her head. After a moment she must’ve finished looking over whatever actual important documents she was going over and put it down, turning her attention fully towards him. He could understand while people considered her intimidating, and while he very rarely felt it herself, now was one of those rare times.

“How  _ is _ everything going with that dear?” she asked, and Kravitz kept his face hidden as he shrugged.

“Fine,” he muttered, and this was not what they were actually supposed to be talking about. He couldn’t remember what they were supposed to be going over, they had scheduled this before the gala, before everything with Taako. He’d been pretty thoroughly distracted with all of that lately. 

“Fine?” she asked, and Kravitz hated that was all she needed to say for him to sigh and keep going.

“A lot of adjustments, Taako seems to be doing well though. I assured him I’d meet him for lunch,” he said, his mother nodding. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, even after so many years of practice Kravitz still struggled at times. Sure, it certainly didn’t help that he was still refusing to look out from under the pillow, but that was a moot point.

“That is good to hear,” she said, and Kravitz could tell that there was going to be more to it than that. “And how are  _ you _ doing?” she asked, and he supposed he should have expected that. They had talked a few times since the announcement, but none of it had been for long and Kravitz had been trying to avoid going too in depth. It was all so much he was sure that he would screw it up some way, if he hadn’t already.

“I uh, well I didn’t see it happening like this I guess,” he said, and that was definitely the truth. On multiple levels if he thought about it. He never saw his engagement going like this, and pulling back towards the reality of the situation, when he choose to go along with Taako’s ruse he certainly did not see himself actually falling so hard for the man so quickly.

“Do you regret it?” his mother asked after a moment, and that was also unexpected. He supposed it was a fair question though, he probably didn’t look the picture of an excited newly engaged lovestruck prince. All of those things were technically true on some level, but nothing quite so straightforward as what it should be.

“No,” he said, and he wasn’t sure if that was a lie or not. He was definitely feeling the guilt of lying to his mother, and dragging Taako into all of this mess. He was also enjoying having the man around though, a bit selfishly. It was hard to figure out how he was feeling overall, but he was leaning more towards no regret. “Or at least, not like that,” he added, and his mother nodded. He was pretty sure she could tell what he meant, even if he wasn’t entirely sure himself. 

“Yes, I’m still surprised you never mentioned him before,” she said, and Kravitz grimaced at that. He was pretty sure she could tell even with his face hidden, and he’d have to get up soon and try to have this conversation like a real adult. He didn’t like that idea though, so he was staying where he was for now.

“Right,” he muttered, not sure what else to say. Maybe it would be easier if he just came clean, but that felt like something he should talk to Taako about first. After all, he did at least include him in the decision to tell his sister, he could afford him the same respect. Of course, that didn’t do anything to help the current conversation. “I guess I was just nervous,” he said, a small tick of a smile pulling at the edge of his mother’s mouth at that.

“How so?” she asked, and at least that wasn’t too hard of a question to answer. It was pretty easy to think of reasons to be nervous right now.

“I wasn’t sure how…  _ anyone _ would take it. I figured you’d be fine with it, but it’s still unexpected, and Taako even...” Kravitz sighed, and it was almost too easy to get lost in the idea that this was all real. “You saw how everyone reacted at the gala, he won’t be able to leave the palace for months without getting hounded, I had to make sure guards escorted his sister out so that she wouldn’t be bothered. I’m used to it all, but Taako’s not, I’m just… worried it might be too much for him,” he said.

He would have felt terrible about lying, but it honestly wasn’t a lie. He was worried that the longer thing went on the more frustrated Taako would get. That this would stop being some fun novelty and he might actually start to resent him over being stuck here. Stuck with him.

“Have you talked about it with him?” his mother asked, and it was certainly a fair question and the best approach. Kravitz nodded, finally sitting up enough to move the pillow off his face and look over at her.

“A bit. He says it’s fine but it just wasn’t supposed to be this fast, or uh, public,” he said, and his mother nodded thoughtfully at that. He could tell there was something on her mind, but he couldn’t manage to pinpoint what.

“Could I ask you something dear?” she said, and it would probably be his undoing but he nodded.

“Of course,” he said, because it was only fair.

“Are you two even engaged?” she asked, and Kravitz could feel himself bulk. He wasn’t sure what the exact expression he made was, but it definitely did something to give him away. He wasn’t able to think of anything to say to try and defend himself, or if he should come out with the truth. After a moment his mother was giving him a somewhat amused smile, shaking her head softly. “I had a feeling.”

“You did?” he asked, and maybe this would be easier than they thought. If she had figured it out herself and was fine with it then they could at least not have to be pretending to be in love all the time anymore. That would probably help with the ever increasing crush.

“I noticed neither of you had engagement rings yet. It’s perfectly fine if you decided without rings but it did not seem your style,” she said, and Kravitz slumped back down at that. It made sense, he was a little surprise that a detail like that had completely slipped his mind.

“That makes sense,” he said, and in some ways he was relieved. “Sorry for not explaining sooner. It all happened very fast and by the time the night was over it felt like we were in too deep to come clean,” he said, and she nodded at that, some definite amusement on her face now.

“Understandable, it did seem to be a rather eventful and fast paced night,” she said, which felt like an understatement. “So, how long  _ have _ you been dating?” she asked next, and Kravitz almost wasn’t able to hide his surprise at the question. Of course it wasn’t quite that simple.

She still thought they were dating.

“Not- not long,” he said, and it was true. They weren’t dating at all, not in reality. He could just tell her at this point, the biggest hurdle was out of the way. For some reason though, he found himself continuing to go along with the lie.  “This was all much  _ faster _ than either of us would have liked,” he added.

“I see, that does make a bit more sense,” she said, and Kravitz supposed he should have known she would see through the previous lies. Sure,  _ he  _ could be a fool and rush into his emotions sometimes, but Taako at least seemed to be a bit more put together than all that. “Were you considering it at all?” she asked, and Kravitz could feel his face darken. The answer to that question was certainly no, not in the few minutes he’d gotten to speak to Taako before they were thrust in front of everyone.

Despite that instead of saying no like he should have he shrugged, not meeting his mother’s eyes as he answered.

“I don’t know. I  _ do _ like him,” he said, and that was really what this came down to. He had never met anyone like Taako before, and he’d met a  _ lot _ of people. They had not known each other for very long at all, but Kravitz could tell he was already stupidly smitten by the man.

Smitten enough to actually want to go through with getting married to him? He would like to say not at this point, but when he thought about the other options he had and how thoroughly uninterested he’d been in every other person he’d tried to date, well this was certainly a stronger start. Maybe too strong, but a part of Kravitz didn’t mind that.

Of course, none of that really mattered, because he doubted Taako would be okay with actually marrying him, let alone even dating him at this point.

“Well, I hope you know I support whatever decision you two end up making. It is nice seeing you so happy though,” his mother said, and Kravitz nodded, some mix of embarrassment and relief on his face at her words.

“Thanks mom, it’s uh, we decided we would wait until all the media hype had at least died down a little before making any big decisions,” he said, and she seemed to think that was reasonable enough. Thankfully the conversation on Taako died down a bit after that, and they eventually got onto the actual topic that this meeting had been planned for what felt like forever ago, but in reality had been about a week.

By the time lunch rolled around Kravitz had forgotten that he never actually got to eat breakfast and was starving. His mother laughed at his growling stomach and insisted he head off, assuring him that she would finish up and head down to eat soon as well.

As he headed down to eat he asked a guard if they could find Taako and invite him down. They had already planned on having lunch together, but even if they hadn’t he figured the man would want to know about the latest development. He was sure it would be a relief for him to know that at least his mother wasn’t expecting them to 100% get married anymore. They could keep backing off slowly like this, baby steps, and no one’s feelings would get hurt and everyone could go back to their normal lives.

When he reached the dining room another guard nodded at him before heading back into the kitchen. That was a little unusual, but Kravitz didn’t think much of it before Taako came rushing out of the kitchen a moment later, an excited look on his face and a tray in his hands.

“Hey Krav! Gimme like ten more minutes and the rest should be done, but here’s something to snack on in the meantime,” he said, putting the tray down on the table. There was some sort of golden looking pastries there that almost immediately made Kravitz’s mouth start to water. He managed to resist grabbing one to turn back towards Taako in surprise.

“You cooked again?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah,” Taako answered, a somewhat nervous look falling over his face now. “I mean, that’s cool right? You said I could use the kitchen whenever I wanted,” he said, and Kravitz quickly nodded, because lord knows that wasn’t the problem.

“Of course, I just don’t want you to ever feel obligated,” he said, and Taako scoffed at that.

“Well let me put your mind at ease there. Cha’ boy doesn’t do  _ anything _ he doesn’t want to,” he said, and Kravitz relaxed some at that. “Now fucking eat something, kitchen staff let me know you definitely didn’t stop by for breakfast, and that’s just not gonna fly. I’ll be back in a bit,” he said, disappearing back into the kitchen before Kravitz could properly respond.

Sitting down with the tray, Kravitz figured the least he could do was listen and eat some of the positively delicious smelling breads in front of him. There was some sort of honey glaze over them that Kravitz decided was his new favorite thing in existence. Honestly, so far every time he’d eaten something of Taako’s it became his new favorite food.

It was incredibly difficult not to finish off the whole tray as he waited for Taako to come back out, but he managed it out of sheer force of will.

When Taako did finally come back out it was with another, even larger tray. Kravitz could smell the food almost immediately, some sort of seafood mix with pasta, and even with all the rolls he’d already eaten he immediately felt starving again. Taako looked incredibly proud as he started serving it up, and Kravitz was a little surprised by how good of a mood he seemed to be in.

“I take it getting a good nights sleep helped?” he asked, and Taako looked confused by the question for a moment, which was probably fair. “You just seem to be in a good mood,” he explained between bites of food. Taako shrugged at that, eating some of his own pasta before speaking.

“Yeah, definitely prefer not being dead on my feet, ya know?” he said, and Kravitz nodded. It was comfortable as they ate, and Kravitz almost hated having to ruin it, but he told himself this wouldn’t do that. It was pretty good news after all, meant they wouldn’t have to pretend quite as much. The world would still think they were engaged, but at least with his mother they were newly dating. That was easier.

“I have an update on the situation,” Kravitz said, and he’d always had good food, but Taako’s just seemed to be on another level. The man raised an eyebrow at that, so Kravitz continued. “Nothing bad. I was thinking we could head back to my room later to discuss it though?” he asked, and Taako nodded, not seeming bothered.

“Sure thing my dude,” he said, and Kravitz kept eating at that. He told himself this was going well. They were handling it, and no one was going to get hurt.

As long as he ignored his own feelings he supposed, but those didn’t matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's my birthday so i definitely had to update something today. here are more dumb boys who are terrible at keeping secrets and even more terrible at hiding their crushes 
> 
> as always thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed


	9. Not Quite Denial

Taako tried to go about his day like everything was normal and he definitely wasn’t infuriatingly flustered from waking up in the same bed as the prince. There was no reason to be after all, he’d been the one to go over there, and it was only for practical reasons.

It was no secret that Kravitz was incredibly attractive though, and that went even more so with him waking up all sleepy and shit. It tipped over from straight up handsome into completely adorable, which was even more unfair somehow. Especially considering that Kravitz was so thrown by the whole thing that he forgot about whatever meeting he needed to get to with the queen.

Still, Taako wasn’t going to let this be a reoccurring thing. He was pretty sure Kravitz wouldn’t be chill with it being a permanent set up after all, so it was best if he tried to cut it off at the pass. Surely with a few more nights he would get used to the quiet in the palace and be able to spend the night alone again.

It was day though, he there was really no reason to think about any of that for now. Instead Taako tried to occupy his time, and it was definitely kind of weird. He was used to having to work all the fucking time. Any time off was usually spent trying to reclaim his and Lup’s apartment from the disrepair it fell into while they were busting their asses, or sleeping. When he was really feeling it he might go out for a night with the boys, or hang out with Lup and Barry doing some nerd shit, but those were rarer occasions.

Also there was the fact that none of them were at the castle, and leaving still seemed like a pretty bad idea. So most of his usual chill out activities were kind of a bust for the moment.

There were other options though, for one Taako intended on digging into that huge library as much as he could while he was here. Lup would tease him for being a nerd, but he could tease her right back for all the nerdy shit he knew for a fact she would be getting up to if she had the same access. Hell, all the nerdy shit she definitely  _ will _ get up to. There was no way Taako wasn’t getting his sister in here as soon as possible.

For now though, even if he was alone it was a good way to take up a lot of his time. It always seemed to surprise people if they found out how smart him and Lup could be, and most of that was on purpose. Taako didn’t need people having any sort of high expectations of him, that was when you had to actually start doing shit.

So that was one nice part of being alone. He could curl up with as many books as he wanted, jotting down notes and ideas as he read to his heart’s content, and no one but the occasional guard was around to see. As far as rumors about the prince’s fancy new fiancé went, Taako was pretty sure ‘sits in the library all day reading science textbooks’ was pretty low on the list of any juicy gossip spreading around.

Taako didn’t actually spend as much time in the library as he meant to though. He had been kind of slow getting out of bed (the prince had a  _ nice _ fucking bed, and he told himself he wasn’t going to get to lay in it all that often, might as well enjoy the time he had) and he’d grabbed a light breakfast.

So it was only a couple of hours later when he started to get hungry again. The library was one thing, but Taako was going to take every opportunity he could get his hands on to work in that sweet, sweet kitchen.

When he got there he guessed Kravitz had followed through on letting the cooking staff know he was gonna be around. They didn’t seem too surprised by him coming back and starting to look around, nodding and letting him do his business. Kravitz had said that he would try to meet him for lunch, which meant he wasn’t just cooking for himself. Sure, he had definitely sealed the deal on any sort of future cooking jobs here, but now the bar was set and Taako did not plan on disappointing.

“Hey, you didn’t happen to catch what the prince had for breakfast, did you?” Taako asked one of the staff. They looked a little surprised by him addressing them, and he guessed that made sense. In any sort of regular circumstance Taako would be on the same level as these people, if he was  _ lucky, _ but right now he was technically above them. It was wild.

“I’m not sure,” she said, before turning and calling out to another cook. “Did anyone see the prince come down here this morning?” she asked, the other cook shaking their head.

“He didn’t grab breakfast today,” they said, a casual enough tone to their voice that it didn’t seem like a rare occurrence. Even still Taako found himself pausing, a small frown starting to form on his face.

“This a regular thing? His royal dorkiness go skipping meals a lot?” he asked, and maybe it was unprofessional to give the prince of the goddamn country a nickname like that. Taako was in a position where he  _ could _ though, and he was going to abuse that privilege for as long as he had it.

“Oh constantly, least once or twice a week,” the older looking cook said, and Taako could recognize that sort of casual tone. It was the tone of a person who knew exactly what they were doing, letting this information slip to someone who could actually do something about it. “Must say, it’s quite nice to see his fiance has such a penchant for cooking. Perhaps you can get him eating a bit more regularly,” they added.

“Oh yeah, that’s  _ definitely _ something we’re gonna be working on,” he said, and maybe it wasn’t any of his business of the prince was well fed. He was a grown adult after all, one he hadn’t even known for all that long.

Still, it was a crying goddamn shame for someone with the type of access to this kind of food constantly to go about  _ wasting _ it. That wasn’t gonna stand on his watch.

So he made sure that a guard knew to get him as soon as the prince showed up and got to work. Made sure he had some sort of appetizer he could get out in case Kravitz came down before everything was ready, which turned out to be a good plan, because that was exactly what happened. Still, he didn’t end up having to wait long, and Taako enjoyed watching people eat his food normally. There was something especially pleasing about the way the prince fawned over his creations that Taako was sure he would never get tired of.

It was so nice that Taako was only a little concerned when Kravitz brought up the idea of having to give him some sort of update, and was pretty well sated when he assured him it wasn’t a bad thing. He didn’t end up getting that nervous until after they finished eating, Kravitz taking them back to his room where they could talk in private.

“So uh, meeting with Mama go alright?” he asked once they were alone, the prince nodding.

“Yes, well, the actual meeting part was fine. Boring regulations stuff, I won’t bother you with the details,” he said, and Taako shrugged, not that bothered one way or the other. “It’s well, it’s bad news, but then good news, and then just uh, news?” he added, sounding incredibly unsure on all three fronts, which was only serving to make Taako curious.

“Well then hit me,” he said, the prince nodding.

“Okay well, bad news, my mother realized we aren’t actually engaged. Which um, if we do ever have to go out in public we need to get you an engagement ring,” he started, and Taako blinked at that, trying not to blush at the idea.

“Can I keep the ring?” he asked instead, definitely earning a flustered look from Kravitz.

“Um, yes? I suppose, why?” he asked, and Taako was real glad that his first and foremost reason for asking that actually wasn’t the crush he was definitely starting to form on the prince.

“Cause if you’re buying me a ring it better well be a damned expensive one, I’m not passing up that sort of safety net,” he said. Kravitz seemed to think it over for a moment, before nodding.

“That’s certainly fair. Practical,” he said, and Taako was glad he at least wasn’t offended by the idea. “Well yes, so that’s out, but good news, she’s not upset by the idea,” Kravitz added, and Taako expected him to be more excited by that.

“Oh really? That’s uh, that’s cool. So we can drop the whole act then? I mean, I guess the press and other countries still think we’re gonna be hitched, but in the palace,” he said, and he definitely wasn’t disappointed. Maybe a little sad they weren’t able to pull off the ruse for that long, he’d thought they’d done a good job. To his surprise though Kravitz shook his head.

“Not uh, not completely. That’s the news I mentioned. She  _ does _ still think we’re dating, just not engaged. I told her it was new though, no plans to get married, not even sure if it’ll work out. So it should be relatively easy to call it all off painlessly once things have died down,” he finished.

“Oh,” Taako said, and well, he guessed that was better than nothing. It definitely made them seem a little bit less insane if they were dating and decided to pull this stunt rather than the complete strangers they actually were. Kravitz started to look awkward as Taako didn’t actually make a move to say anything else.

“So uh, yeah. That’s the update,” he said, and Taako quickly nodded. This whole thing was still so weird.

“Cool, cool. It sounds like this whole thing might go smoother than expected,” he said, Kravitz nodding in agreement. Honestly, Taako bet that if they explained the whole thing to the queen at this point she would find the whole situation more amusing and stupid than anything. He guessed there was some amount of dignity to be saved by going along with the assumption that they were dating though. Plus if he had to bet he had a bit more free reign to move around and chill in the palace than he might if anyone found out he was a random stranger.

While Taako didn’t care much about dignity, he did like that other stuff, so whatever worked.

There wasn’t much to talk about after that, and Kravitz went off to do more prince stuff after Taako assured him that he was fine chilling on his own for most of the day.

Maybe he was getting a bit lonely, but he didn’t need to know that. Instead he went to his room, making sure the door was firmly closed before flopping down on his large, comfortable bed and taking out his stone of farspeech to call Lup.

“Luuup, I’m bored,” he whined, and it didn’t take long for her to answer the stone. When she spoke the annoyance in her voice wasn't quite able to cover up the relief at hearing from him. Taako couldn’t blame her for being worried with all of this, it was definitely the biggest piece of bullshit he’d ever gotten himself into.

“Tired of the royal life already? I figured it’d take you a lot longer to bore of your princely boy toy,” she said, and oh boy he was glad they were having this conversation over the stone so that she couldn’t see his face. Sure, she could probably hear the embarrassment in his voice, but she couldn’t see how ridiculously easily he flushed at that.

“Excuse you, it’s my very proper and chivalrous  _ pretend _ fiancé. Believe me if I had an actual boy toy here you wouldn’t hear from me for a  _ week, _ minimum,” he said, and he could feel Lup grimacing at the idea.

“Gross,” she said, and Taako for the most part ignored that.

“Anyway, not the point, I’m  _ bored. _ It’s so fucking quiet here,” he said, rolling over some. He could hear Lup hum at that, trying to sound like she didn’t care but obviously thinking it over seriously.

“They leaving you to your own devices? You’re not just stuck in some room are you?” she asked, and even though they were posed as casual questions he could hear the concern there. Taako knew that if he was being stuck up in some place to keep from causing trouble she’d be down here in an instant. He was kind of glad that he could shake his head honestly.

“Nah, Krav hangs out as much as he can. He’s just, ya know, a prince and busy and junk. There’s a sick ass library I spent most of the morning in too, and I’ve totally taken advantage of the kitchen for sure,” he said, because really he had shit to do. The prince even offered to let him fuck around with the instruments, and seemed willing to go along with any whim Taako might throw out at him, but that wasn’t the issue.

“Sounds like you got it made then,” Lup said, and Taako sighed, because really it should be fine.

He just didn’t like being alone.

“Maybe, but I’m also super out of the loop now, seriously. What’s going on with all of you guys? How the fuck did Barold take all of this?” he asked, hoping Lup wouldn’t call him out on changing the subject. He was both relieved and unsurprised when she picked up on what he wanted, which amount to missing his sister and family despite only being gone for like, a couple of days. He hated how needy he was and Lup was the best sister in the world for not holding it over his head when she could.

“Oh, he thinks you’re absolutely insane. He also thinks that the prince must be even more insane than you are and if we’re being honest we’re both a little scared by that,” she said, and Taako snorted. He couldn’t blame them for that one, this definitely wasn’t a normal thing for people to do.

“Hey, can you blame the guy for wanting to get to know all of this?” he asked, and he could imagine Lup rolling her eyes at that.

“Well he’s sure as fuck got some time to get to know you know. You won’t believe how big the news of the prince’s engagement is,” she said, and even though it was the whole reason he wasn’t leaving the palace he hadn’t thought about it too much. It must be everywhere though, and all of it would include news about him. He’d always wanted to be famous and world renowned, but he never imagined it happening like this. He always imagined it being for his cooking and stunningly good looks.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s gonna regret that pretty soon,” he said casually, because it was true. Prince Kravitz was a nice guy, too nice honestly, Taako was having a hard time finding anything wrong with him. That just meant that he was definitely gonna get tired of Taako’s shit sooner rather than later.

“You think so?” Lup asked, and she was real fucking good at fooling most people, definitely a better liar than Taako was. Even still, she couldn’t hide shit from him, and he could hear that curiosity there, trying to play it all up as casual. He tried not to huff, flipping around so that he was laying on his stomach now as he nodded.

“Well duh, of course he is. What, were you thinking he was gonna fall madly in love with me or something?” he joked, because it wasn’t like he didn’t know these kinds of wacky misunderstandings were always showing up in romantic comedies and books. He expected Lup to laugh at the idea, or give some sort of sign that it was as ridiculous as Taako presented it to be.

So he was not exactly thrilled by the silence that followed.

“Lup!” he shouted, his face heating up in embarrassment again, because that wasn’t the kind of quiet with her fucking with him. That was a genuine pause as she tried to figure out what to say.

“He seemed like he was really into you! Fuck Taako, he’s lying to the entire country and putting his reputation on the line just to cover your ass and make things a little bit more comfortable for you! That isn’t something you do out of the goodness of your heart when you’re in  _ his _ kind of position!” she argued, and the thing was she was right. When she laid it out on the table like that it was definitely a lot. Still, he really doubted it was anything like that.

“You talked to him for like five minutes. Believe me he really is just like that, okay? Dude’s ridiculous,” he tried to insist, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t believing him.

“Okay, all the more reason for him to fall for you then. No one is that kind-hearted and stupid without being a hopeless romantic, and you guys are seriously checking off a lot of the fairytale romance boxes on this one,” she argued. Taako didn’t like that he didn’t seem to be winning this fight yet.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he tried, which wasn’t the winning data supported argument he would have liked to give.

“You said you’ve been putting the kitchen to use right? Have you gotten to cook for him yet?” Lup asked, and the question seemed a little out of left field. Still Taako knew his sister better than to think she was just changing the subject without having a point, so he was a little hesitant as he answered.

“Yeah, how come?” he asked back.

“How’d he like it?” Taako figured this was a trap, but it was hard not to fall into it. He loved talking about how much people loved his cooking.

“Oh, he was fucking dying over it, you shoulda seen it Lup. I swear he looked like he was gonna cry every time. First time he asked me to fucking  _ marry him,”  _ he said, and as soon as that part slipped out Taako clamped his mouth shut. It was a little too late though, and Lup snorted in righteous amusement.

“Yeah, he’s  _ totally _ not falling for you though,” she said, and okay, maybe Taako wasn’t actually missing his family. Maybe he was good right here never talking to them again, because they were the worst.

“Are you done yet?” he huffed, and Lup stopped her chuckling after a moment.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” she said, and Taako could tell this was a temporary pause on this topic, but he would take it.

They did end up getting to Lup properly telling him about some of the shit that had been going on while he was gone. Overall it seemed like everything was going alright, even if Merle was a little pissed about being suddenly short staffed with no warning. Taako would say it was fair if the old man didn’t spend most of his time napping in the back in some bushes or whatever it was he got up to back there, he didn’t want to know.

The conversation spiraled from there, like most of their conversations tended to do, and Taako was thankful for it. He knew that the silent nights definitely weren’t his favorite, but he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his sister. Sure, he saw her the other day, but they’d barely gotten to talk at all, and it was weird. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to go home for so long.

Eventually Lup had to go make dinner though, and so they both a little reluctantly ended the call. He figured this was weird for her too, but they would get used to it. Plus at this point Taako was starting to get kind of hungry too. Even though he had taken to making lunch as much as possible he hadn’t started trying to push the kitchen staff out for dinner yet. One, he wasn’t really feeling up to the work yet, he deserved some time to be lazy, and two it would probably look a little like he was coming on too strong if he did that.

The food was still fucking excellent though, and it was definitely nice to have something to eat that he didn’t have to cook for a change. So Taako was still looking forward to dinner, and that was definitely the only reason.

It was still a little nerve-wracking when the Queen actually showed up to hang out and eat too, but Taako could deal. He told himself it was better now even, because she didn’t expect them to actually be engaged. She just thought they were dating, that was a much easier lie to pull.

Maybe a little too easy, but Taako was still trying not to think about that one too much.

It didn’t actually end up getting brought up though, and that was probably for the best. Maybe she thought they didn’t need to, since she’d already had that conversation with Kravitz. As far as she knew he was just some nobody her son had taken a liking to.

Which wasn’t entirely inaccurate, he was pretty sure Kravitz had to be at least a little fond of him to go along with all this, he’d give Lup that. Still, the amount by which Kravitz liked him could and would be heavily debated.

Or it was entirely possible that she figured they didn’t want to talk about it with guards around, which would have been true. Either way Taako was thankful that it wasn’t brought up, and it wasn’t too long after dinner that he headed back to his room to retire for the night.

He told Kravitz that he wasn’t gonna make the whole spending the night thing a habit, so he wasn’t. Maybe two times, three times a week at most, which he could slowly ease off of until he didn’t have to go over there at all and everything was fine. It was chill, he could handle that no problem.

The only real problem was that he didn’t particularly want to.

After about an hour he was still tossing and turning, not even all that tired yet because he couldn’t stop thinking. There wasn’t any reason for him to go over, but it wasn’t like Kravitz seemed to mind either. The bed was so huge it really wasn’t an issue, and it  _ did _ help him sleep like a fucking charm last time. The only downside was that he wasn’t  _ actually _ dating the prince so that was probably a little awkward.

He ended up lasting until about midnight before he gave in. He tried to look confident as he made his way back over to the prince’s chambers, and it did help a little when he saw that very same guard outside of him room again tonight. Taako could do just about anything if it meant getting the change to be spitefully vindictive to someone.

It was pretty obvious that he wanted to say something as Taako walked up, but Kravitz definitely let his opinion be known about letting Taako go where he wanted, because he just glared and stayed silent. Taako gave him a big grin, even a little wave as he didn’t even bother knocking, a little relieved when it wasn’t locked. He made sure to slip in quietly, closing the door behind him.

It was a little bit of an issue once he was inside though. It was already weird being in the prince’s room at night when he had let him in. Taako hadn’t considered how much weird it would be with him still asleep and having no idea that he was there. This might not have been his best plan.

Not sure what else to do he walked up to the bed, and it would probably be crossing some boundary to just jump into his bed without some sort of warning. So he reached over and shook his shoulder, the prince jolting awake in surprise. There was some obvious confusion there as he blinked his eyes open, taking a moment to squint sleepily at Taako before realizing who it was.

“Taako?” he asked, and it was kind of unfair how cute he sounded sleepy.

“Cool if I chill here again tonight?” he asked, getting straight to the point. Kravitz nodded, and Taako didn’t wait for anything else, taking that and going to climb into the other side of the bed. He kind of expected Kravitz to fall right back to sleep, but he guessed it wasn’t quite as late as it was last night. It still surprised him when Kravitz rolled over to face him again, clearly still awake and confused.

“I can’t tell if it looks worse for you to be sneaking into my room every night, or if you just came to bed with me out in the open,” he said, mumbling a little. Taako snorted at that, because it was a good question.

“Who said I was sneaking? I practically made finger guns at the guard outside,” he said, earning a laugh from Kravitz.

“Well in that case, you can just start staying in here, if it makes things easier,” he offered, like it was no big deal. Maybe it wasn’t, but it kind of felt like a big thing. He was also still mostly asleep though, so that might have something to do with it. There was a high chance that he’d feel different about that offer in the morning.

“We’ll see,” he said. Kravitz nodded, and with that he started going back to sleep. Taako rolled over, trying to get to sleep himself.

He still couldn’t sleep all that well, but it felt like it was probably for a different reason from the quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya know we're nine chapters in and i still have no idea how long this fic is going to be. nothing to do but just keep on going and see where we end up. eventually these boys will realize how dumb they're being i'm sure 
> 
> as always thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed!


End file.
